Unforgotten
by Omega19x
Summary: When memories are weapons, Ryou ventures through his yami’s past, intent on finally keeping his friends safe. Will he find what he’s searching for? Or will something else find him first? COMPLETE.
1. A Desire to Forget

Insert Disclaimer here: The following is a work of fiction. Fan Fiction. As the name of this website suggests. Since you're reading it, this fact should be obvious to you.

"Not again…"

Ryou watched through the corners of his yami's eyes. Rain splashed on the now soulless bodies of Rex and Weevil as his yami kicked them over. They were simply another two victims of the spirit of the millennium ring's desire to obtain all seven of the millennium items, nothing more.

Ryou didn't want to watch anymore.

He had seen enough of that over the years. And sadly, Ryou had grown quite desensitized to it. There was little he could do. And it was acts like that, which kept him so alone.

There used to be days that he would sit in that soul room, crying in anguish over the misdeeds his yami performed inside his skin or pacing in constant fear of what the darker one would do next.

Every once and a while, he was able to break free to his conscious mind, and distance himself from everyone. But that was a long time ago. And no matter how much he tried to seclude himself, it didn't prevent his yami from doing anything.

Ryou had learned a painful lesson since then. He couldn't stop his yami, and nothing he did inside the soul room would matter in the outside world. He may as well just sit back and enjoy, if one could call it that, the insane ride. Or at least try to focus his mind on other things. If there were any other things to think about…

As always, it kept drifting back to the predicament at hand.

The darker half knew almost everything about Ryou. His mind was an open scroll, especially during the few times he was in control of the body. His yami spent his time in the soul room plotting, piecing together fragments of Ryou's consciousness as though they might help him achieve his revenge on the pharaoh. Knowledge about his friends could be turned into devious strategy. Knowledge about Yugi was especially dangerous. How Ryou wished he could forget everything and everyone.

But even if he did, he knew it wouldn't change.

Even if he had never met Yugi, things would still be the same. Ryou could not longer remember how many once-friends and chance-acquaintances his yami had sealed into tiny lead figurines. Over a hundred, maybe even two hundred, over a period of four years.

Memories were merely weapons now, tools that Ryou couldn't even begin to hide.

"If just a wish to be with my friends caused so much… so much pain." Ryou thought to himself. "No wonder I'm always alone."

He stood silently for a moment. It was true.

"The one benefit, I guess…" Ryou mused to himself, "the more my yami takes control, the fewer memories I can make. Maybe there's less that can be turned against my friends."

He walked back to the far wall of his soul room and sighed. If that was really the most positive thing he could think right now, perhaps he deserved the lengthy stay in his decrepit soul room.

"At least, I still call them my friends… even if they don't want me around."

And a long and lonely stay it would be, from what he could discern through his yami's eyes. The night was still young, and the darker half still appeared quite determined to wreak havoc on the city in Ryou's physical form. A big battle must have been drawing near.

"Why yami…" he whispered to himself, curling in the empty corner. "Why do you keep doing this?"

He didn't really expect such a question to be answered, or even acknowledged. He doubted his yami could even hear him at times like these. But he said it, and meant it, nonetheless.

And suddenly an idea struck him. He jumped to his feet.

"That's it." He quietly exclaimed.

If he really wanted to know why, he would have to think like a thief king. As long as his yami is in conscious control of the body, his mind and soul are like unguarded tombs. What worked for his yami may very well work for him as well.

"If my memories give him new plots, maybe his memories could give me a way to stop them! And if he can access mine any time he wants. Maybe I can do the same to him, without him knowing it!"

Such an endeavor was not an easy one, though. There was certainly a risk of being caught by his yami, or perhaps worse, but it was a risk Ryou was willing to take. The lives of his friends, if he could still call them that, were in constant danger. If there was a way to protect them, he had to try.

"Maybe I can stop him this time, once and for all. All I need is the right weapon. The right memory. And then I won't be alone anymore."

With newfound determination, he stood up and walked to the door of his soul room. His hand trembled as it reached for the handle. Once he opened the door, there would be no turning back.

"I have to." He reasoned with himself, and forced the metal door open. "If he can do it, so can I. I don't want to lose any more friends!"


	2. Force Me to Remember

The door opened to reveal a short stone hallway. A severe chill blew through the entryway, though Ryou could find no identifiable source for it. He shivered as he stepped out of the warm confines of his own soul room.

There was another metal door across the hall, identical to his. It had to belong to his yami.

Ryou swallowed a fearful breath as he snuck silently towards it. Anything, absolutely anything, could be hiding behind that door, he thought to himself. His yami was the king of thieves, after all. A frightening montage of painful traps floated behind Ryou's eyes, along with the many punishments that could await a trespasser into said king's inner sanctum.

He shook his head fitfully, trying to push such thoughts out of his mind.

"Memories are weapons now," he scolded himself quietly. "And the only way to stop him from destroying my friends… is in there somewhere."

Ryou gulped again, and reached his trembling hand towards the door. In a sudden burst of energy, he grabbed the handle and forced it down. He closed his eyes and ducked back as the door creaked opened.

He was greeted, not with a trap, but with the sound of a gentle wind rushing against sand.

Ryou opened his eyes slowly, and then blinked. The door didn't open, as he imagined, to a small room. Instead, it appeared to lead out into an endless desert!

"Is… is that my yami's soul room?" he whispered to himself, sticking his hand tentatively through the open doorway.

Blistering rays of sunlight warmed his uncovered hand instantly.

Ryou blinked again. It wasn't an illusion.

He looked around one more time, and upon seeing nobody else in the hallway, he stepped through the door. It slammed itself closed behind him.

Ryou spun around as the door clasped shut, disappearing from sight.

"…What?" he dashed back towards what had once been a wall, only to run right through it. If there was really a wall there, it had disappeared as well, leaving Ryou to fall face first in the sand.

He stood up, and brushed the rough grains from his clothes.

"My yami's soul room… is… is this?" he whispered, trying to find an end to the desert. But he couldn't. It stretched farther than his eyes could see. In the distance, if he squinted, Ryou could barely make out a row of pyramids.

It was the only destination he could find, and given so few options, he started walking towards them.


	3. A little Oasis in the Desert

For hours and hours, Ryou walked, and the pyramids in the distance were content to remain in the distance. The hot sun blazed over his pale skin, which was now more than drenched with sweat. The shirt clung to his back. He thought for a moment about removing it, but it was the only barrier between his tender back and the scalding whip of the midday Egyptian sun. It may do more harm than good.

Pherhaps, he thought to himself, this was a trap in itself.

His thin frame ached as he pushed himself forward. His stomach curled fitfully, demanding for even a drop of water. His head spun as he tried to keep his eyes on the pyramids on the horizon, not to be distracted by the strange apparitions of palm trees and wading pools that suddenly appeared around him. He knew they were figments of his imagination, which disappeared, like the door, as soon as he gave them a second glance.

"Yami? Where… Where are your memories?" Ryou gasped, trudging forward. "Please… tell me I'm getting closer…"

He licked the sweat from his chin, hoping in vain that it would quench his thirst. But all the salty fluid did was make him throw up, and crave the illusions of water even more.

Before long, the spinning had turned to pounding, the echo of his mindless footsteps throbbing in his head.

He prayed to be back in his soul room, as distraught as it usually made him. The thought of his yami finding him and scolding him grew more and more appealing. Banishment to the shadow realm even started to sound favorable. He tried to shake those thoughts from his mind, but they refused to be so easily dismissed.

"Please… fi..find me…" Ryou whispered, swaying as he staggered forward. By the time another hour had passed, Ryou had collapsed lifelessly into the sand.

When he finally woke up, he assumed himself to be dead. He could no longer feel the sun on his face, although his body still burned with its heat. He tried to move, but found himself too exhausted.

"…Wh…where am I?" he finally managed to whisper. His eyes, still closed, relished in the serene darkness.

"You shouldn't go out until Ra goes down." A tiny voice answered him. It didn't sound like his yami's voice, but rather like that of a child.

Ryou jolted awake, his entire form painfully jumping forward in the bed he didn't know he was resting in.

"Even a kid knows that." There was a sharp edge in the child's voice, and a strange air of familiarity.

Ryou waited for his eyes to come into focus. The blurry outline standing in front of him soon became that of a poor Egyptian boy holding a wet rag in his hands.

The child was small, and quite thin, cloaked in soiled rags. He looked to be around the age of seven or eight. His white hair, dirty and unkempt, hung down to his shoulders. A series of scars, from a heinous looking wound, stretched from his right cheek to his forehead. His right eye was forced closed by the enormous amount of scar tissue. It made Ryou shudder to imagine what kind of injury would have caused it.

His one amethyst eye watched Ryou's every motion with apprehension.

"I should have left you out there." The child continued, dipping the rag into a small wooden bucket. "But you don't look like one of the pharaoh's guards. If you were a priest, you'd have more gold."

Ryou looked down. He didn't have the millennium ring around his neck. He strained to remember if he even had it when he walked through the soul room door. But he couldn't.

"… Did… did I have… something around my neck?" Ryou managed to ask, his voice scratchy from the desert heat.

"No, idiot." The child replied, sincere enough for Ryou to believe him. "What village are you from, to get all the way out here?"

"I… I…" Ryou looked at the child, as he climbed on the bed. He put the cool rag around Ryou's sunburned neck, and jumped back down. This boy sounded, and almost looked, like his yami.

"You don't know?" the boy asked again.

Ryou looked back up. He couldn't very well tell the boy his real purpose here. After all, the child might actually be one of the memories he was looking for. It might hold the key to stopping the spirit of the millennium ring's latest scheme.

"I don't… remember…" Ryou made up a convenient excuse. He had said those words truthfully so many times, it hardly sounded like a lie.

"You must have been out there longer than I thought." The boy appeared slightly concerned beneath his rough exterior.

He took a small bowl, and dipped it into the water. He then handed the bowl to Ryou, motioning him to take it. Ryou looked at it for a minute.

"It's not poison." The boy answered, sipping from it before offering it up again.

"Thank you…" Ryou smiled weakly, and took the bowl from the boy's hands. He pressed the cold pottery up to his lips. The edge was cracked, but it was otherwise very smooth. He took a long drink, letting the fresh water trickle down the back of his throat. And in the heat, he couldn't think of a more pleasurable sensation.

The child climbed back up to the bed again, and stared at Ryou.

"You wear funny robes. And your skin is a funny color." He commented, poking at the t-shirt and jeans Ryou was wearing. "You must not be from around here."

Ryou blinked.

"No… I… I guess I'm not." He added. "I… I don't even know where 'here' is, I'm afraid."

The child blinked back.

"Oh…" he took the empty bowl back. The boy answered in a very serious tone. "This is Kul Elna. The village of thieves."

He seemed almost surprised when his strange houseguest didn't suddenly cower in fear at the very name of the place.

"At least, it used to be." He continued, looking away from Ryou. The child's expression drooped. "Before the pharaoh's men came."

"Pharaoh's men?" Ryou asked.

The young boy growled at the second mention of the Egyptian ruler. His little hands curled in tight fists, and he muttered a curse under his breath.

"You really aren't from around here!" the child repeated. "You've never heard of the pharaoh?"

"I've… um… heard of him…" Ryou attempted to answer. That wasn't a lie, really. "But only a little…"

"He should die. The rotten hound. He… He'll die one day, for what he did! I swear it on Anubis' gate!" the boy curled his fists even tighter, his nails cutting into his dark flesh. He shook his head, trying to stop himself from shedding any tears.

"There… it's okay…" Ryou felt the need to comfort the boy, and timidly put his arm around the child's shoulders.

"Keep your hands off of me, freak!" the child shouted, jumping off the bed, and rolling onto the floor in a defensive position. Keeping his eyes on Ryou, he reached for a knife on the table nearby.

"I'm… sorry…" Ryou attempted to interject.

The young thief climbed to his feet, pointing the knife at Ryou.

"You're lying!" he shouted, his hand shaking. "The bastard sent you! He sent you to finish the job!"

Ryou curled back on the bed, quite afraid. Was this his yami as a child? The boy, despite being so little, was certainly was acting a lot like his yami, and had a sizable hatred of the pharaoh.

"No… I promise, I'm not… Nobody sent me…" Ryou attempted to reason with the youth. He held both of his hands up, open in front of him, to prove he was empty handed. He made no sudden motions. "I… I've never heard of Kul Elna… I… I promise…"

The boy jumped onto the bed, placing the knife at the pale stranger's throat. Ryou gulped as he felt the sharpened metal rest uneasily against his neck. The knife trembled as the child's hands shook.

"You're lying!" he shouted. "I won't let you kill me! Not like they killed Mom and Dad! No!"

Ryou tried to retreat back onto the bed, but his exhausted body wouldn't respond.

"I… I don't want to kill you… please… Please don't kill me…"

"You're just part of the pharaoh's scum! Why should I believe you!" he shouted coldly.

Ryou didn't know how to respond.

"Please… I'm… I'm just lost… I don't know where I am… I… I don't know how I got here…" he attempted to half-lie. He quivered as the child grabbed his hair and pressed the knife even closer to his throat. "I… I won't hurt you, I promise!"

The young boy blinked, watching the stranger cower in fear of him. It was a reaction he liked. For a moment, he wished this really was one of the pharaoh's guards, but somehow he knew it couldn't have been. None of the pharaoh's men looked or acted like this. His skin was too pale. And the white hair bore an uncanny resemblance to his dead mother.

That last fact alone probably tipped the young thief's scale of sympathy towards the traveler.

"…You… you promise you're not… one of the pharaoh's men?" he asked, looking up with an innocent expression. Ryou only nodded.

"Please… please don't kill me…" he gasped, holding his breath.

He only released that breath when the young boy dropped the knife on the bed. He looked like he was about to cry. That appearance soon changed.

"I'm only letting you live because you look like Mom." He snarled, and jumped back down, being sure to take his knife with him. "If you promise you're not one of the pharaoh's men."

"I'm… I'm not…" Ryou whispered, still shaking. "I promise."

"Good." The boy answered. "I can't be too careful around here."

He put the knife back on the table, and returned to the water bowl. He took a drink from it, letting the piece of pottery splash back down into the bucket when he was finished with it.

"The… the pharaoh ki…killed your mother and father?" Ryou asked, watching the boy dry his mouth on his ripped sleeve. He climbed up to the table, and took a pomegranate from another bowl.

The child nodded.

"He killed everyone."

For the first time, Ryou listened to the immense silence that seemed to penetrate the walls. The silence was similar to that from his own home, when his mother and sister had just passed away.

"Do… do you live here all alone?"

"Are you deaf as well as dumb?" the child answered, slicing the fruit open with his knife. He greedily devoured part of it, as though he hadn't eaten all day. "I told you. He killed everyone."

He sat up again, and looked out a window. The village was completely empty. There were no footsteps, no coins dropping, nothing. 'Everyone' didn't just mean the boy's family. It meant his entire village.

"He killed everyone in the village?"

The boy nodded, again pushing back the urge to cry. He took another bite of fruit.

"I… I saw them." He answered. "He… the pharaoh's men came one night. And killed everyone. They burned them all up, and turned them into gold."

Ryou froze. He knew enough to know that the boy was talking about the millennium items. There was no mistake. This child had to be his yami.

"I'm… I'm terribly sorry… um… what… What did you say your name was?"

The child looked up, and tossed a pomegranate over to Ryou. He managed to catch it, barely taking his eyes off the small youth.

"Bakura." The young thief growled, and looked away. "Not like I expect you to remember it."

Ryou could barely breathe. It was him. It was his yami, as a child.

"Do you even remember yours?" the boy asked.

He couldn't very well say, 'My name is Bakura too.' He would have to use his first name only.

"Um… Ryou…" he replied, "And Bakura, thank you for finding me…"

The child looked him over. This Ryou person didn't look like such a bad person. He certainly didn't appear to be in league with the pharaoh.

"Just don't be stupid, Ryou, and go wandering around in the desert again." He looked the other way again.

Yes, Ryou thought to himself, this is certainly his yami.


	4. Bonfire

Ryou spent the rest of the afternoon in the child's hut, sleeping. He was exhausted from his trek into the desert, and the child, knowing this, just let him rest.

When Ryou finally did wake up, the moon had already risen, and the air had grown much colder. The little thief was sitting by the edge of the bed, watching his feet sway over the dirt floor.

Ryou sat up slowly.

"Bakura… aren't you cold?" he asked, shivering a little.

"You get used to it." He growled back, surprised that his guest had already woken up.

"Oh…"

"If you're going to travel, you should do it at night." Little Bakura added. "Unless you like passing out the desert."

Ryou sat up, and looked out the window. The scenery was different than before. The abandoned huts he saw earlier in the afternoon had candles burning in the windows. He could hear the sounds of laughter, of revelry.

He blinked, astonished. The child at the foot of the bed seemed oblivious to any of it.

"Bakura… I thought you said your entire village was killed."

"They were!" he shouted back.

Ryou turned his attention again to the window, where a fire was burning in the center of the town.

"Do you mind if I… if I go outside?"

"Do whatever you want. I don't really care." Bakura answered, fiddling with the knife in his hands. He nodded to the small boy, and pushed back the soiled curtain that separated this hut from the rest of Kul Elna.

Whatever the boy insisted, the rest of the village was quite alive and well. And even though it was the middle of the night, they were still awake. Ryou crept behind a group of men sitting by the side of the large bonfire. They were all dressed in similar rags, but a few of them were adorned with fine jewelry.

"You better be watching what you steal, Duras." One of the older men laughed. "You'll be sending the plight of the pharaoh down on all of us."

"It'll be gone by sunrise, father." The man replied. "And it will give us enough gold to buy ten days worth of food for my family."

"You enter the market place with even one piece of gold, and they'll chop off your hand!" another man shouted. He held up his right arm, which had been reduced to a mere stump. "They know we're not to be trusted."

"But most merchants would rather have gold than honor." The one called Duras replied, his grin revealing a mouthful of missing teeth.

"If none of the palace guards are in the marketplace." Another added. "Then, you best be watching your back."  
"Arac, I'm a thief, not a fool." Duras answered haughtily. "But we have little choice. Ella is with child, and soon we will have two mouths to feed!"

"Let the runts starve, for all I care." Another man coughed, sharpening a dagger on a withered leather strap. He threw his head back, a long pony tail of black hair whipped his left shoulder.

"Tyrris!" another man shouted, slapping the man who just insulted what looked to be his friend. "You said that about my daughter four moons ago! And that is exactly what happened. She caught the fever…"

"And we should have burned her body…" Tyrris added, rubbing his cheek. "The fever's spreading like wildfire in the south end of the village. My brother and his two wives have already taken to their beds. You should be lucky you're still breathing."

"The pharaoh…"

"The pharaoh cares nothing about the lives of a few thieving peasants."

Duras took the necklace from his neck, and dropped it into the fire. An iron trough had been forged to collect the liquid gold. And by morning, he would have something to barter with, as long as no one else in the village stole it from him first.

Ryou shivered as he watched the men argue. From the looks of the fight, each of them wanted Duras' gold. He would probably be very lucky if he were still alive by morning.

Suddenly, another voice caught his attention. It sounded like little Bakura's.

"Daddy! Daddy!" an even younger boy ran from the edge of the village. He looked to be about five years old. His head was covered with a beige cloth, and his body was clad in a short tunic, much like the one Bakura had been wearing earlier. It was much cleaner, though, and not so torn.

As the boy came closer, Ryou realized that the scar on his eye was missing. He was also smiling, rather than scowling.

Tyrris turned his head.

"What is it, runt? Can't you see we're busy!" he shouted, causing the little boy to tremble. "Don't you know by now not to come between a man and his gold!"

"It's not your gold, Tyrris!" Duras sneered. "And if you lay one finger on it, I'll slice it off and stuff it down your conniving throat!"

"But Daddy!" the boy begged, reaching on to Tyrris' sleeve. He pulled on it, still jumping up and down.

"Bakura!" he shouted, yanking his arm from the child's grasp. "What the hell do you want this time? And it better not be food. You eat more than both of Arac's little runts combined!"

Ryou watched as the child pouted, and then pulled a huge gold pendant out from under his tunic.

"Looky what I got!" he proudly beamed, and held up the pendant for his father to see. The black haired man blinked, and then snatched the treasure from his little boy's hands. Bakura pouted when the pendant was taken from him, but hoped his father would at least praise him this time.

The rest of the men gathered closer.

"Don't even think about touching it, you scoundrels!" Tyrris growled, his knife still in his other hand. "Or I'll skin you alive!"

He turned his attention back to his little boy.

"Where'd you get this!"

The boy pointed towards the Valley of the Kings in the west. "From the pointy tomb where Ra hides."

Tyrris studied the pendant. It was emblazoned with the Eye of Horus, the symbol of the pharaoh himself. He blinked, stunned that his boy would bring home such a treasure. It could only have come from one of the former pharaoh's tombs.

"I said, where did you get this, runt." Tyrris growled, grabbing his son's tunic, and pulling him closer.

"I… I said from… from one of the… pointy tombs… I… I forgot which one…"

"Your kid went in the pharaoh's tomb?" one of the men asked.

"And didn't get caught?" another jumped in.

Several more leaned in, attempting to snatch the pendant.

Tyrris pulled his knife out, and slashed at each one of them.

"I said don't touch it!" he shouted, and pulled his son even closer. "And keep your filthy hands off my little boy. Just because your runts are worthless pigs…"

Bakura looked up, with a big smile on his face.

"Yeah!" he smirked, mimicking his father's expression as best he could. "Did I do good, Daddy?"

"You did very good." Tyrris smiled. He leaned down. "Now, just between you and me… How'd you get in there?"

Little Bakura backed away.

"No, Daddy. You told me… A… a good thief… never reveals his path…" he repeated, timidly, word for word. The rest of the older thieves laughed.

"You're smarter than you look under that damn white hair." Tyrris smiled again, and slapped his boy on the back. He laughed, watching as the boy laughed too. "If you want food, come on. The inn in the next village will give us more than we could ever eat in exchange for just a piece of this."

His little stomach growled.

"You just keep bringing home things like that… and I think we're gonna' make it after all!"

Ryou watched the two walk away from the bonfire, towards the north end of the village. A few moments after they left, Duras started screaming again.

"Where the fuck is my gold?" he shouted, jumping on Arac with a knife unsheathed. "I know you took it!"

"You're mad!" the other man shouted back, wrestling him to the ground.

Ryou turned away from them, and started to follow his yami instead.

"I will Daddy!" Bakura grinned, grabbing onto his father's hand. Ryou noticed the child had placed something in his father's hand. It was the small bar of gold Duras had forged. He was amazed. He didn't even see Bakura take it!

The elder man patted his son on the head.

"You keep this up, Bakura, and one day you're gonna' be the king of thieves!" Tyrris laughed.

"Really?"

"Would I lie?" the father smiled.

"Yes. All the time!" the child smirked back. Ryou watched as they walked off into the distance.

"A chip off the old stone." He grinned.

When Ryou turned back around, the village was deserted again. The bonfire pit was long dead, and there were no men wrestling by it. All the huts were empty, except for the one with little Bakura peeking out of the doorway with his one eye.

It was just another memory.

"You stand out there like that, you're gonna' catch the fever." The child shouted, catching Ryou's attention.

He nodded, and walked back towards the house. He wondered if perhaps the child could take him to see more memories.

"Bakura…" Ryou began, sitting uneasily on the bed. "Do you know what the… the Valley of the Kings is."

The little boy nodded.

"That's where they keep the bodies of dead pharaohs." He snarled. "Why do you want to know that?"

"I… I was looking up at the stars… and I remembered it. That's all…" Ryou feigned his innocence once more. "I… I think that's where I was supposed to be going…"

"I knew it!" he shouted. "I knew you were trying to trick me!"

Ryou backed away carefully.

"You're one of the pharaoh's men! Why else would you want to go there? Unless…"

"I… What if I'm a… a thief… just… just like you?"

Little Bakura lowered his guard again. The stranger was barely sure of his own name. He could be a thief from a far away land lusting after treasure. But given his smooth skin and utter incompetence, if he was a thief, he would have been caught and killed long ago.

"You'd be a lousy thief." The child replied, poking at Ryou again. "I think you're a slave."

"Maybe… maybe I am a slave… I… I don't know…" he sighed. "Could you… please help me get to the Valley of the Kings? Do you know where it is?"

"Of course I know where it is." Bakura sneered. "There's lots of gold there. And gold buys food."

"… Do you steal from there often?"

"Does Ra come back every morning?" he scoffed. "And I'm good at it too. I'm small enough to crawl through the hidden passageways, so that the guards never notice me. And sometimes, I practice sneaking up behind them, and killing them. So I'll be good at it when I get too big to crawl like that."

The frank explanation from the little thief scared Ryou.

"So you can take me there?"

Bakura nodded.

"But once you're there, you're on your own. I'm not stupid enough to go sticking my nose in the pharaoh's graveyard for very long."

Ryou nodded. He understood. If he didn't need the help so badly, he would rather have left the child behind in the safety of his own village. That is, if it could even be considered safe anymore.

He watched the child with such tender eyes. His yami might have been a cold thief, but Ryou was starting to feel pity for the darker spirit. He could scarcely imagine it, to be orphaned by the pharaoh's guards at such a young age. To grow up cold, constantly hungry, and always alone. Afraid that if someone, anyone, could get their hands on you that they only wanted to kill you. It was logical that he would harbor such hatred for the pharaoh.

And Ryou knew very well how hard it was to be alone. With his father away on business, and his mother and sister gone, it was a feeling he knew often. If it wouldn't have resulted in being stabbed, he probably would have broken down, and simply hugged the child. But as he discovered earlier that day, it was safer to keep his sympathy to himself.

He was jolted out of his thoughts when little Bakura brushed past.

"You gonna' stand there, or are we leaving?"

Ryou turned around quickly.

"Right now?"

"If we're lucky, you'll be there before sunrise. And I can be long gone."

Ryou only nodded, and followed the child out the door.


	5. A King and his Servant Boy

They walked for the rest of the night, the pyramids only growing closer when the sun started to peak from the horizon. In the distance, the whinny of horses could be heard.

"Pharaoh's men!" Little Bakura gasped, and ducked behind a large stone. It was probably going to be moved later that day, a part of the latest pharaoh's resting place in progress.

Ryou followed the child's lead, and jumped behind it as well.

"That was close…" he sighed, trying to keep silent. From around the corner, he could see the guards approaching. They rode slowly on a team of two horses. They were donned completely in white, scarves over their heads to protect them from the rays of the rising sun. They laughed back and forth amongst each other, pulling what looked to be a prisoner in chains.

"Who would have thought we'd finally catch the thief that pillaged the Great Tomb." One of the guards proclaimed, smirking back to look at the captured convict.

"Aye, Wajib." The other answered. "And stealing food from the market at that. We will collect a handsome reward."

"Are you sure we caught the right man?"

"No mistaking it, Heftet." The first guard pulled a whip from his belt, and lashed it back at the prisoner in question. "Keep up the pace, tomb robber!"

The other man laughed.

"Of course it's the right man. There's only one man in the entire kingdom that fits that description! White hair. Telltale scar." Wajib smiled. "That's our man, allright."

"The vizier, and the pharaoh, will be quite pleased. We've caught the almighty Bakura!"

Ryou gasped. Did those men just say…

He turned around sharply, to find the child gone. His heart started to race, and he leapt up without thinking of the consequences.

"Bakura? Where are you?" he shouted, face to face with the two guards as they passed by the stone. He froze.

The prisoner, a young lad around the age of thirteen, turned his attention at the mention of his name. He was thin, but well built, his sleek body more like a well-bred racehorse than a victim of famine and poverty. He was barefoot, his only clothing a tattered black loincloth. His white hair was a ragged mess. The scar on his face was still visible after all those years. Although his right eye was open, it looked terribly unfocused.

The guards looked at each other, and then turned their attention back to Ryou.

"Looks like there might be two of 'em after all, Heftet." The guards studied Ryou intensely.

"Or that the King of Thieves has a servant boy." The other laughed, leaping down from his horse. He leaned down over Ryou, the pungent stench of his breath causing the pale one to squirm.

Bakura just turned his head, refusing to even acknowledge the possibility that he didn't work alone.

Heftet grabbed Ryou's wrist, and pulled him even closer. He examined the unusual color and texture of Ryou's skin.

"Looks like he's never seen Ra in his lifetime." He muttered, pulling on his hand. Ryou, overcome by fear, was unable to protest. "Or a day of hard labor either."

He pulled a pair of shackles off his friend's saddlebag, and snapped them around Ryou's wrists and ankles. Ryou tried to resist, but one snap of the other guard's whip made him reconsider pulling away.

"But any friend of Bakura's is an enemy of the pharaoh's."

Once shackled, they shoved Ryou behind the horses, next to the captured Bakura. The thief took a quick glance at Ryou, and growled. Another crack of the whip, and the horses started walking, pulling both of them along with them.

"Wh…what happened?" Ryou whispered to the thief. The horses kicked up sand in his face. As he spoke, he tried in vain to shield his eyes.

"I don't know who you are, or how you know my name, freak." Bakura spat, snarling at the shackled Ryou. "A lot of good it's done you now."

"I… um…" Ryou attempted to think of a convenient story quickly. "I've heard of you… um… of your village."

The thief only scoffed.

"I have no village." He growled with a sinister glare. "The pharaoh made sure of that."

"Kul Elna…"

"Don't ever say that name around me again." He sneered. "Or I'll stain that pale flesh of yours with fresh blood."

Ryou looked to the ground, watching his shackled feet take a few more steps.

"I'm… I'm sorry…"

"You better be."

He watched the young Bakura walk. The boy looked so very tired, as though he had been walking all night. His shoulders hunched over, quite accustomed to sneaking through small passageways and hiding in shadows.

"You know what the punishment for grave robbery is, right servant boy?" one of the guards laughed. Ryou looked up.

"…No…"

Wajib smirked.

"Death." Heftet replied. "If you're lucky."

Ryou studied the face of the young teenager who would eventually be his yami. He seemed unconcerned that he was facing death. He seemed even less concerned that an innocent person was probably going to be killed with him.

He turned to Bakura.

"Aren't… aren't you afraid?" he whispered.

"They're the ones who should be afraid."

They reached the pharaoh's palace by the time the sun had reached its peak. Ryou was on the point of collapse when he saw Wajib dismount and walk over to him. He pulled Ryou up by his chains.

"The vizier will question you later." He snarled, hoisting Ryou inside the gates of the palace. The other guard did the same with Bakura. "For now, you can rot in a cell like the rest of the criminals."

The guards pulled Ryou down a long flight of stone steps, underneath the main floor of the palace. When they turned the corner, he lost sight of Bakura, who was being pulled in the opposite direction. The thief was putting up quite a fight, and several other palace guards were being called in to restrain him.

"Bakura!" Ryou shouted, as he heard the teenager scream amongst the cracking of several whips. But he couldn't turn back. The guard pressed against him, forcing him to continue downward.

They threw him in an empty cell. A thin layer of straw broke his fall, and he rolled into the corner. By the time he looked up, the wooden door was being locked. Their footsteps slowly disappeared into the silence.

Ryou looked around. The cell wasn't always empty. The skeleton still hanging from rusted shackles proved that. It also suggested the likelihood of escaping from such a fate alive.

He didn't have long to sit and contemplate his short future, however.

It wasn't long before the door was opened again, and a pair of particularly nasty looking guards hoisted the young Bakura inside.

His body was covered in slashes and abrasions. Most appeared to be caused by leather whips. A few of the deeper gashes were probably made by knives. The thief trembled as he attempted to sit up. His hands shook, jangling the shackles with an uneasy dissonance.

"…Ba..Bakura?" Ryou crawled closer.

The thief sat up, every inch of his beaten body trembling.

"Are you all right?"

"What's it to you?" he growled, wiping a trail of blood from the fissures that already lined his right cheek.

"Just… con…concerned?" he attempted not to sound suspicious. Bakura turned his head. "… It looks like the guards did a number on you."

"Save your breath." He spat.

Ryou looked around. The guards had supplied him with a bowl of water at least. He took the bowl, and brought it back to the injured teenager.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Ryou took off his shirt, and ripped off one of his sleeves. He dipped the fabric in the water, as dirty as it looked, and started to wipe the blood from his young man's back.

Bakura cringed, and swallowed a scream. The water stung as it hit the open lacerations.

"Keep that shit off me!" he shrieked, snatching the makeshift cloth out of Ryou's hands. He threw it back in the older boy's face.

"But…"

"Leave me the fuck alone!" he shouted. "I'm the king of thieves. I work alone. And I'll die alone!"

Ryou watched his yami's good eye glance at the wooden door. There were guards standing behind it, no doubt. In the other, he could see such pain, such emotion, dying to come out.

"If… if you don't clean it… they'll get infected." Ryou pleaded, dipping the sleeve in the water again.

"Why the hell do you care?" he snarled. "It won't matter. You know what the punishment for tomb robbery is."

Ryou's eyes betrayed their innocence. Were the guards telling the truth?

"Death, idiot." The young thief tore the cloth from Ryou's hand. This time he threw it across the room, striking one of the skeletons still hanging in the corner.

"They're really going to kill you?"

"Even for a servant, you're dumb." He spat back. "Of course they're going to kill me."

He leaned back, and glared out the small window. The sun was just passed the bars, letting the fullest amount of light into the cell. In its radiance, the blood glistened. While it didn't seem to bother Bakura, it made Ryou cringe.

"Probably by sundown."

The thief winced as he shifted position. Ryou, unable to look at the open wounds any longer, crawled over to the corner and retrieved the damp rag.

"Maybe sooner." He smirked. "I know they're real eager to put my head on a post. Probably would have done it already if the bastard weren't off performing a ritual with his ra-forsaken son."

"You mean… the pharaoh?" Ryou asked, hardly sneaking around the tender subject.

"Of course, idiot."

Ryou dipped the fabric into the water again, starting to clean a monstrous looking gash in his yami's leg. Bakura growled, finally picking up the bowl and throwing it right into Ryou's face. The force of the impact sent him tumbling back onto the straw.

"What is your fucking problem?" the thief screamed. Ryou looked up, with tears in clinging to the sides of his eyes. He didn't want to cry, not over his yami. Not over the spirit that tortured him and his companions for the past few years. But he could barely contain himself.

"I…"

"You jump out from behind a pile of rocks like I'm your long lost master, get yourself thrown into the pharaoh's dungeon with me, and you keep splashing water on me like it's going to make a fucking difference!" Bakura shouted. "Well it's not!"

Ryou cowered beneath his arms, waiting for the king of thieves to strike him. When the massive blow didn't come, he eventually peeked his head out.

Bakura was leaning against the back wall, his arms folded at his waist. If Ryou didn't know any better, he'd say the thief king was on the verge of tears himself.

"They killed everyone, you know." He finally spoke, glancing awkwardly at Ryou. "Everyone in my village. My father. My mother. You look a lot like her."

He watched the thief with a strange sense of sympathy, a feeling he never once thought he would direct towards his yami.

"I… I do?" Ryou forced himself to ask, pretending that he hadn't just seen the child version of the thief in Kul Elna a few hours earlier.

"Fucking bastard." He cursed under his breath. "All those years on the outskirts of the kingdom as a starving street rat, and now you want my head. You should have just killed me then, and been done with it!"

Ryou tried hard to imagine it. His yami, the epitome of dark power, was a scavenger on the sides of the street for food. A child stealing from the tombs of the pharaohs just to survive. Chased by guards, attacked by who knows what, living as an orphan in a deserted, dilapidated village. Always sleeping with one eye open, jumping at the slightest sound, trying to stay one step ahead of disaster. It was almost too much to bear.

For a thirteen year old, the thief's face depicted a lifetime of harsh tragedy.

"My family, my friends, everyone I ever knew. Burned into those gold trinkets for your fucking priests." He whispered, his scratchy voice like sandpaper against Ryou's heart. "You bastard. You sick power-hungry bastard. If I could just get my hands on those seven fucking items, maybe I could at least…"

His voice trailed off.

"You could… what?" Ryou interrupted uneasily.

"None of your fucking business!" The thief king suddenly realized he had been thinking aloud.

"Have… your revenge?" Ryou whispered, just as tentatively.

"Not like I'll ever get that chance." He let out a pained sigh. "I still hear them, pharaoh. I still hear their voices, every fucking night. Screaming as they're burned alive, their skin and bones melted into fucking pieces of gold! And I won't stop hearing them until I rip your head off and throw it onto the millennium stone!"

Ryou carefully crept up beside his yami again. The young man was livid, sweat dripping with blood, down his thin face.

"Maybe… maybe you still can…" he whispered. "You know, still… a..avenge your family…"

Ryou could scarcely believe what he was saying, actually encouraging the same behavior that he journeyed into this memory world to prevent!

"You're even dumber than I thought!" he spit in Ryou's face. "They're going to kill me at sundown."

"… Not… not if you can escape…"

"How the fuck?"

"You… you could fit through that window… if… if you could get up there… and… and maybe move one stone…" he whispered, as quietly as he could.

The thief glanced up. One of the stones did look a little worn. With enough time, he'd probably be able to push it free.

"Maybe you're not as dumb as you look."

Before he could even stand, however, the guards slammed the door open. One of them grabbed Bakura by his hair. The thief yelped in pain, trying to break free, but his battered body refused to perform any impossible tasks.

"Time to stand judgment before the millennium court, grave robbing scum!"

"…wa…wait!" Ryou jumped forward, leaping on the guard. A swing of his arm sent the pale boy flying back into the straw again.

"What do you want, servant boy?" the other guard laughed at Ryou's meager attempt at saving his friend. He yanked Bakura to his feet.

"You… you said you weren't going to kill him until sundown!" Ryou protested.

"Pharaoh says his crime's too heinous for him to be kept alive." The guard smiled as he grabbed the thief king by the neck.

"Can't… can't you take me instead?"

The guards looked at each other. It was certainly a strange request.

"You want to be killed first?" the first one laughed.

"Can't bear to see your master die, servant boy?" the other smirked as he threw Bakura back onto the ground. The thief king struggled to muffle another scream as the coarse stone threw dust into his open wounds. "Very well. Seize him."

Ryou barely had time to fully realize the consequences of his request before the first guard snatched him by the arm, and yanked him out of the cell. The door slammed behind him so quickly. He wasn't able to even catch a glimpse of the thief king's face.

But he felt good inside, for reasons he could barely understand, even though he had just bought the thief enough time to make an escape attempt.


	6. The Thief's Great Attack

The guards pulled Ryou to the gates of the palace.

"Where is the grave robber?" the watchman demanded, stomping his spear on the ground with displeasure. "You brought the wrong one!"

"This one wanted to go first, Nekhamet." The guard replied as he thrust Ryou forward.

"Those weren't the pharaoh's orders."

"What could it hurt?"

The guard did not have time to answer. Blood chilling screams echoed through the distance, and flames could be seen spouting from a neighboring village.

"The villiage!" Nekhamet shouted, grasping his spear tighter. The echo of a galloping horse struck the palace walls. "Sound the alarm! Send troops to put out the blaze!"

"Yes, sir!"

They took off running towards the outskirts of the palace.

Before his subordinates could put the order into motion, however, an attacker on horseback had slaughtered them. Their bloodied bodies fell to the sand, their heads rolling like mindless boulders. And he turned his attention to the guards next.

The man holding Ryou dropped him to the ground, his shaking hands no longer able to hold the chains. Free from his captor, even if only for a moment, Ryou crawled as quickly as he could behind a golden statue.

"Get out of my way if you value your lives!" the intruder smirked. Ryou let out the breath he didn't realize he was still holding, and peeked around the statue's base.

The man on horseback was his yami, there was no mistaking it. And that meant Ryou's plan was a success. His yami had escaped the dungeons.

Ryou could not stop watching. His shaggy white hair brushed against the jagged scar in the morning wind. But he was older now, perhaps in his early twenties. His muscles, as well as his undeniable hatred, were well toned over time. He was clad in a long red robe, which he had stolen from the tomb of the former pharaoh. That pharaoh was being dragged behind the horse, the sarcophagus dusted with sand as it rode through the night.

"Stop, in the name of the pharaoh!"

"Worthless fools!" The thief laughed, and a dark creature appeared behind his horse.

Ryou gasped. The monster was almost as tall as the palace, and looked more powerful than any of the holographic duel monsters he had ever seen.

"Diabound, destroy these pests!" he sneered, and the monster obeyed. The lower half of the monster, having taken the form of a snake, devoured one of the guards. The creature's hands wrapped around the other, crushing his bones.

"Y..yami?"

With the guards destroyed, the monster retreated back into a gold disc that the thief Bakura had attached to his left wrist.

"They will pay…" the thief muttered to himself, as he wrapped his hands around the reins of the horse. "They will all pay for what they did. The pharaoh. His evil priests. They will pay for destroying my home. They will pay for destroying my life!"

A tear fell from Bakura's right eye, and slid down the length of the scar. He made no motion to wipe it off, or to even acknowledge its presence. Perhaps, he wasn't even aware that it was there.

"I will avenge you…" he whispered, and struck the horse. It cried out, and dashed into the open doors of the palace.

And throughout all of this, Ryou remained unnoticed.

He ducked behind the statue again. Part of him wanted to rush inside, to warn the pharaoh of Bakura's attack. The pharaoh, after all, was just like his friend Yugi. And he would never let his yami harm Yugi or his other friends.

But another part of him was far more hesitant. Could it be that he was starting to feel not only empathy for his yami, but perhaps also sympathy. The fearsome man on horseback was the same child that rescued him from the desert. He was the same orphaned child that lived in a decimated village, scavenged for food on the roadside, and stole in order to survive. He had been beaten and broken by the pharaoh's guards more than once.

The hatred that his yami bore in his heart didn't seem so misguided now. In fact, it almost felt justified.

Ryou attempted to shake those thoughts out of his mind.

"What are you thinking? This is your yami, Ryou." He whispered to himself. "He… he beat you, punished you for interfering. He… He wants you to die. Just like everyone else."

He was shaken out of his thoughts by the sound of horseshoes on paved stone. His yami's stallion leapt over the wall above him, landing at the gates to the palace. His laughter echoed, sending chills down the boy's spine.

Ryou ducked back down as an entire fleet of guards raced after the thief in pursuit.

"He defeated all of the priests combined…" Ryou heard one of them mutter. "How can we expect to capture him?"

"It doesn't matter. This is the will of the pharaoh!" another answered, his screams verging on the edge of bloodlust.

"After him!"

"Take him dead or alive. It doesn't matter!"

"To the death of Bakura!"

"For the glory of the pharaoh!"

Ryou simply quivered. Upon hearing the footsteps grow faint, he slowly stood up from behind the statue. It was a mistake he shouldn't have made.

"You!" A new guard pointed his spear at Ryou's face. "Men. Seize him!"


	7. Millennium Trial

The guards were quick to capture the newest intruder, immediately suspicious. Ryou Bakura's white hair, a quality shared with the thief, was more than out of place in that part of the world. His hands and feet, already bound in iron shackles, indicated that he was dangerous. And having appeared so close to the time of the thief's attack, there was a good chance they were working together.

"Seize him!"

Ryou yelped as the guards thrust him over the statue's base, his chains dragging against the gold.

"Who are you?" they shouted. "What is your association with the tomb robber?"

The prisoner was frozen with fear.

"I don't think the scoundrel wants to talk, Patem." One of the guards laughed. "Or perhaps someone already cut out his tongue for us."

Ryou gulped.

"We'll ask you again, whelp. What is your association with the tomb robber? And where is he now?"

"I… I don't know where he is…" Ryou finally spoke, timidly. His hands covered his face, in case he was going to be struck.

"But you know who he is, don't you!" the guard shouted, causing his captive to tremble. "Tell me! Or I will kill you where you stand!"

"Patem, the high priests will decide this." Another guard stepped in, thwarting what would have been a hooking punch into Ryou's left jaw. "That is a direct order. All prisoners with possible connections to the thief are to be immediately brought to the palace for trial."

The guard sneered. The order disappointed him. He would have taken great pleasure in beating the wanted information out of the poor boy. But he handed over the chains anyway. It was the order of the pharaoh, after all.

The other guard dragged Ryou into the royal palace, and into the main hall. Despite the chaos, the pharaoh Atemu was still sitting on the throne. His father's sarcophagus had been removed from the chamber, and was probably on its way back to its resting place. The six high priests looked especially vigilant.

"What is the meaning of the intrusion?" Priest Set spoke up, demanding the room's attention.

"Have you caught Bakura already?" the pharaoh stood from the throne, before being motioned back down by his vizier.

"No, my lord. But we have caught another intruder at the gates of the palace." The guard answered. "He was already in chains. He must have attempted an escape during Bakura's attack."

"We do not have time for petty criminals right now." Set scowled, and turned his attention back to the pharaoh.

"Wait, Set." Priest Mahaado gasped, as his millennium ring glowed painfully. "There is something about this prisoner that we must attend to."

"Your millennium ring?" Priestess Isis. "Is it acting strangely again?"

He nodded, as the guard thrust the prisoner onto the cold gold floor.

"We think this one might have a connection to Bakura. They do bear a certain resemblance to each other."

"Isis, has your necklace told you anything about this intruder?" Set interrupted. Ryou slowly attempted to push himself from the ground, but the guard pushed him back down on his knees.

"No. But much of the future has been unclear lately."

"It doesn't matter." Set growled. The millennium rod twirled in his hands before pointing at Ryou. "If you are working for Bakura, then our items will tell us. And you will be cleansed."

He turned back to the pharaoh.

"May I have permission to proceed, my liege?"

"Of course." Atemu answered, not a hint of hesitation in his voice.

"What is your name, peasant?" Priest Set demanded, as the other priests quickly surrounded him.

"…R..Ryou…" he stopped short of saying his full name.

"A strange name." Priestess Isis commented. "Kalim, do your scales sense any imbalance?"

The priest held forth the millennium scale, and the room grew silent. It could, however, produce no clear answer.

"It is as if he does not exist, Isis." Preist Kalim replied. "Either his soul is in perfect balance, or I cannot read it. The scales are malfunctioning."

"It is probably the latter. Shadaah, reveal his ka." Set tapped his foot impatiently. "We cannot afford a delay."

"Of course." The other priest replied, and held up his millennium ankh.

"…Wh..what are you doing?" Ryou managed to speak amongst the confusion.

"Silence, criminal. You are being judged."

"Priest Set. There must be some mistake." Shadaah interrupted the lesser guard.

"What do you mean?" The other priests took a step back.

"Is something the matter?" Pharaoh Atemu gasped as well.

Shadaah glared forward, seeing the soul of the young prisoner appear in his field of vision. Amongst the unending shadows was a tiny spellcaster. A small being, with simple white hair and white robes, sat cross-legged, as if completely oblivious of the incredible darkness he found himself in. A wing of white feathers sprouted from his left shoulder. A leathery black wing sprouted from his right. On the center of his robes was a tiny heart.

"His ka…" Shadaah gasped. "It is small, but powerful!"

"What?"

"Mahaado, it may even rival that of your illusion magician!" he continued, causing the priest of the millennium ring to gasp. His magician was the image of his own soul, commanding far more power than any of them knew.

"Impossible…" he whispered under his breath.

"It is truth." Shaddah replied.

"Then bring forth the sealing tablet. I shall extract it at once!" Priest Set smiled. This creature would be a fine addition to the collection. And it would greatly aid in his plan to battle Bakura.

"Set, wait!" Shadaah interrupted before the priest could activate the power in his rod. "You cannot do that."

"Why not?" he asked, as Ryou quivered.

"His soul is not tainted. It is perfectly pure." The priest revealed. "We must do nothing to him. He is an innocent man."

The rest of the court was dumbfounded. A prisoner, with so much resemblance to the thief Bakura, was actually innocent of all crimes?

"What!"

"That is the way of the pharaoh, is it not, my king?"

"I say we return him to the dungeons!" Set attempted to argue. "He has knowledge of Bakura. He may know where he is. And he must be made to talk."

"No." Pharaoh Atemu shouted over his arguing council. "His soul has been judged, and it is pure. He just be let free."

The guards did as the pharaoh requested, unlocking the shackles from Ryou's wrists and ankles.

"Th..thank you…" Ryou whispered, and bowed to the pharaoh, so as not to be arrested again.

"Go now."

Ryou nodded, and silently made his way out of the throne room. Behind his back, he could hear the priests still arguing. One of them wanted him followed. Another wanted him dead. Ryou just wanted to get away from the palace as fast as he could run.


	8. Tavern

Ryou's legs couldn't carry him another step. He had been walking since he left the palace. Now, it was but a speck on the horizon, and the sun had long set. He didn't know where he was, or where he was going.

He entered what looked like another village.

"Have you heard? High Priest Mahaado has been killed!" he heard a woman whisper as she grabbed for her son's hand. The entire village walked on eggshells, keeping a constant eye for anything dangerous.

"Killed by Bakura."

"I heard he might be in the village somewhere." Another woman gasped, trying to keep to the shadows. "Keep the children close, in case they might be taken from us."

Ryou couldn't help but attract attention as he walked. He felt as though he would pass out, but tried his best to ignore the feeling. That would attract even more attention.

"I need to find something to eat… or… or a place to sleep…" he mumbled to himself, glancing at the buildings that he passed.

Suddenly, he paused.

The door to one was open, and torches lined the wall. From the sound of clanging bowls and cups, this one appeared to be a tavern.

"This might work…" he whispered, and carefully entered the door.

To his surprise, nobody paid him any heed. Instead, they were all focused on the strange man in the center of the room. It was Bakura. Cloaked in royal garments, with jewels and gold dangling off in excess, the white haired man sat at his own table. Numerous plates of food were piled on the wooden spool, and he was greedily devouring his fill.

The man behind the counter was the only one not staring. He, instead, was admiring a gold bracelet that looked like it came from the tomb of a pharaoh.

Ryou casually walked past the other thieves and criminals, eyeing his yami as their next victim, and sat down. The tomb robber glanced up, a piece of meat falling from his mouth. While he couldn't exactly put his finger on it, the pale boy looked very familiar.

"Who the hell are you?"

Ryou smiled a little.

"Hi, Bakura…"

"That's King of Thieves to you." He answered back, tearing into the meat again.

"Can… Can I have some food… pl..please?" Ryou asked meekly. "I'm… I'm really hungry…"

Some of the other customers stared. The pale boy had a lot of gall to ask the thief for handouts.

"Fuck no." Bakura snarled, and pulled the bowl of potatoes closer. It had been days since he'd had a decent meal. And he didn't know when the next time would be. "And you even think of laying a hand on it, I'll tear it off and throw it to the hounds."

"… oh… o..okay…" Ryou looked down at the food longingly. His stomach growled.

Bakura looked back up at the loud noise, and at the frail body somehow managed to produce it.

"Where the hell have you been, to get so damned hungry?"

Ryou looked up, his face blushing with embarrassment.

"Um… the… the pharaoh's dungeons…"

"Heh. I broke out of there once." He scoffed. "Nothing too hard about that."

"I know…"

Suddenly, Bakura stopped. He stared at Ryou for a few minutes, as his memories played out behind his eyes. He only escaped because the guards took the other prisoner first, a prisoner that readily gave himself up, a prisoner that looked so much like the hungry person in front of him. But that was almost ten years ago, and this one hadn't aged at all.

"How long were you in there?" he finally asked, his voice quieter, with less edge.

"… I don't know…" Ryou answered. A decade in his yami's life was only a few minutes to Ryou.

Without speaking, the thief shoved a small plate over towards Ryou.

The boy blinked, not quite sure how to graciously accept the gift, or if he would be attacked for even considering it a gift.

"Eat it."

Again, Ryou blinked. He nodded silently, and took a small piece of meat from the plate and bit it.

"But don't ask for any more favors." He whispered under his breath.

"Th..thank you…" He savored the bite lovingly. To be given food by his yami was a far cry from the days when his body would be returned to him, belly so very empty and weak to the point of passing out.

"Yeah, I'm only giving it to you because…" Bakura paused. "You look like someone I used to know, okay?"

"Really?" Ryou couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah." Bakura answered, his tone momentarily, and uncharacteristically, softened. "Someone I used to know a long time ago."

"A nice person?"

"The only one I ever met around here." Bakura mused, letting his guard down, just this once. "He gave his life for mine."

"Sounds like you had a real friend…" Ryou smiled weakly, and continued to eat.

The thief king would have responded, but he suddenly realized where he was and what he was doing.

"I work alone, runt." He snarled. "Keep asking questions, and I'll rip out your stomach and eat what I gave you."

Ryou nodded quickly, clasping his mouth shut.

"That's better." The thief smiled. His senses attuned to his surroundings again, he could hear the crowd sneaking up around behind him. A good half of them probably had their knives drawn, with the intention of quartering him and dividing up his stolen goods between them. "Oh, Diabound…"

Another smile, and the room of people grew silent again. Everyone, save Ryou and himself, was brutally slaughtered. A dry chuckle erupted from the tomb robber's throat.

Ryou could scarcely breathe. The smell of blood lingered in the air, clinging to his clothes and skin. The sight made him sick to his stomach, and he almost vomited the kind handout that the thief king had given him.

"A lesson, runt. Always watch your back." He smiled, and stood from the table. Stretching, he patted his gorged belly. Like a king, he paraded out of the tavern and into the cold streets.


	9. The Final Moments of Thief King Bakura

Ryou rushed out of the tavern, but the thief Bakura was long gone. And in the world of his memories, he could be anywhere, at any time.

"I… I should find a way out…" Ryou whispered to himself, staring up at a sky full of tiny stars. "I… I don't know how long I've been here… If…And if my yami finds out…"

He shuddered to think of the punishment the evil spirit of the millennium ring would inflict upon his body should he discover that he is alone inside it.

"But how?" he whispered, starting to walk in the direction of Kul Elna. It was the first place he had come from, and the only place he could think of going. "Maybe the… the door is back where I left it?"

It was a logical thought, but in his yami's mind, logic was never the driving force.

Ryou arrived at Kul Elna just as the sun started to rise. The city was in ruins.

Angry cries bellowed from the hidden chamber underneath the city, indicating that a fearsome battle was taking place. Gasping, Ryou quickened his pace. The ground shook from an explosion, almost knocking him off his feet as he reached the entrance to an underground cave.

"The millennium scale is mine!" Bakura roared, triumphantly taking the item from the dead body of Priest Kalim. His ka, broken into pieces, left his body in the same state.

Ryou watched as his yami studied the gold item, and smiled at the pharaoh.

"It will only be a matter of time before I have all of them! And then my revenge will be complete! With the power of the ultimate darkness in my grasp, I will annihilate all of you!" he laughed, unaware of the monster approaching his shield.

"You overestimate yourself, Bakura!" the pharaoh shouted. "Dark Magician! Now!"

"Yami, look out!" Ryou shouted, but his voice didn't carry over the battlefield.

Another monster, a fusion of the high priest Mahaado and his ka, suddenly penetrated the shield around Bakura's Diabound.

"What?" Bakura barely had time to gasp before the dark magic attack struck his powerful beast. The blast, far more powerful than anything he had ever seen, or even anticipated, sent Diabound crashing to the ground.

The creature, as dangerous as an Egyptian God, fell into its own darkness, and disappeared.

Ryou held his breath as he watched his yami clutch his chest. He studied the bodies of the dead priests, their monsters also gone. It only took a brief second to connect their fate with that of his yami.

Bakura's face cringed in agony. His heart felt like it was about to explode. Blood dripped down his cheeks, frightening wounds erupting all over his body. He didn't want to admit it, not even to himself, but he knew that the battle was over.

"Finish him!" the pharaoh called to his two remaining priests.

Logic also would have dictated that Ryou stay out of sight. However, that too, did not happen. Unable to stop himself from dashing onto the battlefield, Ryou ran towards his yami.

The broken body of the thief crawled towards the millennium stone, desperately attempting to get the items to their proper places. With the ultimate power of darkness, he still might be able to complete his mission. He might still gain his revenge.

He moved on, attempting to ignore the pain.

"… Yami!" Ryou shouted, but Bakura's head was too foggy to even recognize his voice.

The pharaoh, however, saw the intruder on the battlefield, and stopped his attack.

"It's the prisoner from the palace!" he gasped, calling back the Dark Magician before he could provide a lethal blow.

"I told you he was in the same set as Bakura!" Priest Set announced, pointing his rod at Ryou.

"But his soul was deemed pure! It cannot be."

Having put the millennium ring into the stone, Bakura looked up. His eyes, even his good one, were glazed over. He knew there was someone running towards him, but he couldn't see whom it was. And in the growing darkness, the voice didn't seem familiar. In fact, Bakura could barely remember how he even got there.

He glanced towards where the pharaoh had been standing. The blood ran freely from open wounds, splattering on the dusty stone. He shakily outstretched his hand.

"This… this can't be how it ends!" he gasped, his breath barely moving. He turned towards the new voice. "…Help me!"

"Yami, no!" Ryou ran, but like the receding horizon, he couldn't reach the thief king in time.

In another instant, Bakura's body dissolved into sand. The red cloak fell to the ground in an unceremonious dust cloud. A dark shadow fell upon the millennium ring.

Ryou's body fell over the millennium stone. The heat from the ring, burning with its new captive, pressed angrily against his chest. He could feel the spirit of the thief banging on the other side of the gold, trying to free himself from a prison far worse than the pharaoh's dungeons. And Ryou knew from history that all his efforts could only be in vain.

After a few moments, Ryou finally pushed himself up. He looked around.

The entire chamber was empty again. The pharaoh, his priests, everything was gone, except for the stone and the four millennium items the thief had managed to place there. And Ryou couldn't help but feel its emptiness.

"Why… why are you feeling like this?" he asked himself aloud, seeing as there was no one that could hear him. "You… You came here to find a way to stop your yami… Not help him."

He sat up from the stone.

"When you find your way out… he's still going to be the cold-hearted monster that he always was. He's still going to seek revenge. He's still going to hurt your friends, and you… Always you…" Ryou let a tear slide down his cheek. He ignored it, though. "Why should you care that… that his life… well… was terrible?"

No matter how much he attempted to rationalize his motives for entering the memories of his yami, he couldn't erase them from his mind.

The tender young child, seeking some sort of praise from a village of wicked thieves, scolded for being alive one minute, and given love that corresponded to the size of a gold trinket he managed to sneak from a royal tomb.

The hungry orphan, stealing food from the neighboring markets before escaping back to an empty home in an empty village. Frightened of any intruder, lest he be killed just like the rest of his family.

The young man, beaten and almost killed by the pharaoh's guards simply for trying to survive. One step ahead of disaster, he likely slept with one eye open, constantly looking over his shoulder for fear of being killed.

The bitter tomb robber, finally acquiring the power of his inner spirit, attacking the palace with the intention of recovering the one sliver of life that the pharaoh took away. His rage was built on justified agony. And as much as Ryou hated it, part of him wanted his yami to succeed.

But he knew that he didn't. He just watched Bakura die, his spirit being sucked into the one thing that he despised most. For the rest of eternity, he would be trapped within the items that marked his village's destruction, the cruel irony of fate.

"No wonder he hates me and my friends so much…" Ryou whispered, tracing his finger along the outline of the ring. "I… I wear the ring now…"


	10. Eternal Punishment

Suddenly, the air around him grew cold. The walls of the hidden chamber of Kul Elna darkened into that of a tomb. It was familiar though.

He was back in his yami's soul room.

"Finally…" Ryou whispered to himself, as he attempted to sneak through the darkness. He prayed that his yami hadn't left his consciousness yet, and that he would be able to safely reach his own soul room first.

That, however, was not the case.

In the corner of the soul room, Ryou could see the outline of a figure.

"… Yami!" Ryou gasped under his breath, keeping completely silent. If he were lucky, perhaps the spirit of the millennium ring wouldn't see him.

Upon a second glimpse, however, it was not the spirit as Ryou knew it. It was instead the thief Bakura, trapped within the confines of the millennium item.

And once again, curiosity overrode Ryou's thoughts of escape. Instead of racing for the door, which was visible at the other end of the corridor, he walked to a corner close to his yami. The grey bricks concealed him, and he let his eyes take in everything.

The sight was a frightening one.

The king of thieves did not look much like royalty anymore. In fact, he looked like a prisoner. Ryou could only guess how long his spirit had been laying there, days, maybe even years, but he had long given up the hope of escape.

His hands were broken and stained with blood, from trying to tear through the thick wall. Clearly, he had made no progress, or he probably would have kept punching it. His hair was knotted messily, and tears lined his cheeks, sticking to the edges of the now familiar scar. His tongue timidly licked the salty drop, as though it were the only oasis in the dry tomb. It very well may have been. His body was starved, his black loincloth barely concealing protruding ribs.

Ryou gasped, no longer knowing whether Bakura was half-asleep, or merely too weak to move.

"He's… being punished…" Ryou whispered. "Just like the pharaoh wanted…"

The whisper, breaking through the silence, startled the thief. He jumped, arching his back. Ryou could hear bones creaking from atrophy.

"Is… is… is someone there?"

Ryou wanted to stay hidden, but he couldn't hide himself any more, not after seeing what had become of the thief Bakura.

He carefully stepped out from behind the corner.

"Wh..who are you? Wh… Where do you keep coming from?" he asked, his voice dry and scratchy. His tone was thick with desperation.

Ryou paused for a moment, wondering if he should tell his yami the truth – that he was the man's hikari from the future, a boy who one day put on the millennium ring and started a new war. But he decided against it.

"I… I can't… say…" he whispered, walking carefully towards his yami.

"Di..did you just get here? Can… Is there a way out?" His speech broken, a glimmer of faint hope shone through his left eye. The right one was just as dead as it had always been.

"There is…" Ryou whispered. "There is a way out…"

The thief king suddenly found a last vestige of strength.

"Where!" he demanded.

"That door." Ryou weakly pointed, afraid that he might be struck for not suggesting it sooner.

The thief squinted. All he could see was darkness pouring over the stones like a desert flood.

"Where, damn you!"

"Right there…" Ryou pointed again. "Don't you see it?"

The thief fell back into the wall again.

"You're just a dream, aren't you. My mind playing tricks on me again." He scowled. "There's no door there. I've walked all over this place. There's no door there. Or anywhere."

He looked as if he was about to cry.

"All because of the pharaoh…" he whispered, curling his broken fists tightly. The motion, however, pained him, and he quickly released them. "Never free! I'll never be free! Not in Kul Elna! Not in the dungeons! Not in the palace!"

Ryou didn't know what to say.

"The seven items, they were my only chance. And now, I have nothing left! No one, and nothing!"

Ryou timidly reached for the thief's hands, but he pulled them sharply away. Again, Ryou slinked back, afraid of being attacked. But this time, there was no energy left, even if that had been the tomb robber's intentions.

"I'm… sorry…" Ryou finally answered his yami.

"Sorry?" he scowled. "You don't know the meaning of the word! If I ever get out of here… I'll make the pharaoh pay! I'll make him pay! I'll get the seven items back from the stone, and I'll destroy him, his palace, his priests, everybody! I'll make them regret they ever heard of a village called Kul Elna!"

His body slumped against the floor, completely exhausted from such a vehement retort.

Ryou, unable to bear the sight any longer, stood up. As he made his way to the door, the man's skin started to blanch. His complexion and countenance started to change into the way Ryou remembered them best.

He stood at the door for what seemed like an eternity. His yami, the exact duplicate of himself, was draped weakly against the wall. It was as though he hadn't moved for three millennia, a mere corpse in a millennium tomb.

As those words ran through his mind, the air inside his yami's soul room grew rank, taking on the aroma of death itself. His yami, still unmoving, was oblivious to it. Indeed, he was probably the cause of it.

Violently ill, Ryou rushed out into the corridor that separated the rooms before almost collapsing. He left the metal door swinging back and forth, unable to force himself to turn around and close it.

"… Yami…" he whispered, unable to shake everything that he experienced from his mind. He seemed so… lonely…


	11. Time for Plan B

Ryou rushed towards the edge of his soul room, and glanced out of his yami's eyes. They certainly were not in Domino City anymore. Instead of the familiar streets, the horizon was covered in pyramids and golden sand.

Yugi, as well as the rest of his friends, stood in front of a large dome. Malik, and his sister, Isis, were with them. He couldn't hear their conversation, but guessed that it probably had something to do with helping the pharaoh to regain his own memories.

His yami cackled, waiting for the group at the bottom of the cliff to go inside the Ishtar home. Once they had gone, he started his climb down.

"This is it." He laughed to himself, the words reverberating through Ryou's soul room. "After three thousand years, the opportunity has come! All of the items are in one place, and they will soon be mine! At long last, I will finally destroy the pharaoh! I will have my revenge!"

As his yami walked, Ryou paced back and forth in his soul room. His yami seemed so confident for battle. And that meant he surely had a plan.

"Oh… I've got to stop him somehow…" Ryou whispered, rubbing his hands together as he walked lines down his soul room. "I went back into his memories in order to do that… and what did I find? Not much…"

Yami Bakura paused at the door. A long staircase descended into an underground chamber.

"Yes. The tablet of memories is down there." He smiled. "And when the pharaoh is pulled inside, I'll be waiting for him! I'll destroy him just as I should have three thousand years ago!"

Ryou watched as the spirit of the millennium ring started climbing down the steps. Driven by his unquenchable desire for revenge, his yami laughed to himself. In the confusion, his own life being a mystery to him, the pharaoh would stand no chance.

"I can't let that happen…" Ryou muttered to himself, with equal resolve.

He opened the door to his soul room again, and dashed into the stone corridor. The door to his yami's soul room was still open, just as Ryou had left it.

"If my yami plans to meet him inside the tablet, he'll need to get completely out of my body." Ryou mused aloud. "And that means he'll need to come back here first..."

Ryou glanced inside the room. Frozen musk clung to the air, weighing heavy on his spirit. But, otherwise, the soul room was completely empty.

Outside, Yami Bakura paused on the steps.

"I won't be needing you for a while, host." He snickered, and attempted to jump inside the millennium ring. "When the puzzle activates, it can pull me right out of here, and into my victory!"

With no one to take control of Ryou Bakura's consciousness, his body fell, face first, into a lifeless slump on the stairs.

The spirit of the millennium ring reappeared inside his soul room with the intention of quickly leaving it. He did not expect, however, to see his lighter half standing in the middle of the dark room, his hands crossed sternly at his waist.

And he didn't know what to make of it.


	12. Confrontation

"What the hell are you doing here!" Yami Bakura shouted, storming up to Ryou. It was bad enough the boy hadn't taken over his consciousness. The fall on the stairs probably broke his nose, among other things. And that would slow him down in the long run. But now, Ryou had invaded the thief's deepest sanctuary.

"Get the fuck out of my soul room, you insolent bastard!"

His yami's hot breath flushed Ryou's face as he screamed. Ryou, however, forced himself to stand his ground.

"Leave!" he screamed again, but Ryou silently refused.

The spirit of the millennium ring fumed.

"How dare you! I should drag your miserable body out into the Sahara, into the most wretched slum I know, and leave you there! Then sit back and watch you shrivel and die!"

Ryou flinched. Part of him wanted to stay strong, and call his yami's bluff. The other part of him, a part traumatized in more ways than he could conceive of, wasn't so sure the spirit was bluffing.

"You… you mean Kul Elna?" Ryou found himself asking.

His yami stared at him oddly.

Ryou, realizing what he just said, clasped both hands over his troublesome mouth.

"What did you just say?" Yami Bakura blinked a couple of times.

"I… I didn't say anything, Yami, really…" Ryou quivered, shaking his head.

"Liar." The spirit of the millennium ring growled. He pointed directly in front of his lighter half's nose. "You just said Kul Elna. You don't know anything about Kul Elna!"

"I… I didn't…"

"You don't know anything about that place! Nobody has ever heard of Kul Elna! Not in over three thousand years!" Yami Bakura fumed, storming away from Ryou. His feet struck heavily against the stone floor. "And the ones that did? They're all long dead!"

"The… the pharaoh?"

"That tyrant is WHY they're all dead!" he screamed, turning sharply around. Rage burned in his eyes, piercing Ryou's face with infernal precision.

"I'm… I'm sorry…" Ryou attempted to interrupt.

"Not like you would know that either!"

Ryou watched as his yami paced around the soul room, slightly unnerved by the fact that the spirit hadn't outright attacked him. Instead, he walked into a shadowed corner, surrounding himself in the familiar darkness.

A loud crack rang out as Yami Bakura punched the stone wall. Ryou cringed, not sure whether it was from the wall or his yami's hand.

"Nobody knows that. Not now. And not then." Yami Bakura's voice uncharacteristically softened as his thin frame slumped out of the dim light. He let out a long sigh, and leaned against the wall.

Ryou could barely see him there, but he knew the wall was familiar. It was the same destitute place he saw the thief king wasting away.

"…Yami?" Ryou whispered cautiously, and took a step forward. There was no audible response. Gulping, he took another step, and then another. "Yami? Are… are you all right?"

As he came closer, the spirit of the ring decided not to look up. He cradled his hand in the safety of his other arm, keeping his eyes fixed on the shadows billowing around his feet.

"Go away." He weakly commanded, his body otherwise still refusing to acknowledge Ryou's movement towards him.

"Why?" Ryou couldn't avoid asking.

"I'm the king of thieves." He answered stoically. His voice droned in monotone. "I live alone. I work alone. I'll die alone. Got it?"

It was an answer he had heard many times that day.

Ryou sighed. And in a state like this, the king of thieves suddenly didn't seem as frightening.

He carefully knelt down until he could look his yami in the eyes.

"And what good will the millennium items do, yami? What happens when you finally do get all seven? When you finally do get your revenge on the pharaoh?" Ryou whispered. As he spoke, he watched his yami flinch. "What will happen then?"

To gain the ultimate power of darkness, Ryou thought in his head. It surprised him, though, when his yami remained silent.

"Nothing will change…" he found himself adding, almost against his will. "You're still going to be alone…"

"Bastard!" his yami shouted, suddenly thrusting his head up. He reached out, and slapped Ryou sharply across the face. The boy fell backwards against the cold bricks, nursing the bruise that was probably already forming. He glared at the whimpering soul and growled. "What the fuck do you know about being alone?"

His answer stung like a second blow across the jaw.

And something inside Ryou suddenly snapped.

"I… I know a lot!" he shouted back, even taking Yami Bakura by surprise. Tears swelled behind his eyelids, trying to push themselves out.

"Hmph."

"Why do you think I came in here?" Ryou continued quickly, his voice still firm. "I don't want to lose any more friends!"

Yami Bakura stared at his lighter half. He was suddenly faced with the same determination the boy possessed when he first learned of the yami's existence, during his first attempt to steal the millennium puzzle. It had been several years since Ryou had been that brave.

By the time Battle City had ended, he thought he had broken his host completely. But suddenly, the weak mortal had managed to find a renewed sense of vigor. He didn't want to admit it either, and he knew he never would, but Ryou's words hurt just as much.

"You don't know what it means to lose friends, host." Yami Bakura sneered back. As he spoke, he glanced away from Ryou's emotion-filled eyes. "If you think sealing those wretches into lead figurines is torture, you don't know shit."

"You know me! You know everything about me! Everything that's ever happened to me!" Ryou shouted back, crawling forward. His cheek stung, but he ignored the pain, inching towards his yami again. "And you know I'm not lying!"

Yami Bakura said nothing.

"You're not the only one who's ever lost everyone, you know." Ryou sighed, his voice trailing off into the shadows as well. And for a few agonizing minutes, neither light half or dark half spoke again.


	13. Force Him to Learn

It was Yami Bakura who finally broke the unnatural silence.

"I…" he paused, not quite sure what to say. His voice was soft, almost trembling. "I don't know everything about you, host."

Ryou paused, not sure if the thief was telling the truth.

"You don't?" he blinked, still stunned at the spirit's response. Surely it was nonsense. "But you've been through my mind so many times. You've torn through my memories! You've read my thoughts!"

"If they concerned me, yes." Yami Bakura answered, rolling his eyes. "Do you honestly think I care about what happens inside that fucking head of yours? If it doesn't have to do with the millennium items or my survival, I don't give a fucking damn."

He crossed his arms, glaring at his lighter half again.

"Yami?"

"I didn't wait three fucking millennia to sit around and watch slide shows of exotic vacations or pathetic reruns of show and tell." He sneered.

"Yeah?" Ryou replied, standing up. "Well… Well maybe you should!"

He started to march, frustrated, towards the soul room door, but stopped short. Before his hand reached the handle, he turned back around. He came in there with a mission of his own, and this was his only chance.

"And… and I'm not leaving here until you do."

Yami Bakura stared at his lighter half, hardly believing such a petty demand.

"What?" he finally asked, annoyed.

"I'm… I'm not going to let you leave here until you go through my memories." Ryou repeated, with a little more certainty this time. He crossed his hands in front again, and stood his ground. "And I mean it."

"Fine!" Yami Bakura stood up, charging over to where Ryou was standing. "It won't take long to watch your picture-perfect slide show. And if it gets you out of my face one second earlier, than it's worth it!"

He grabbed Ryou by the shirt and lifted him off the ground. The fabric pulled around his neck, choking him slightly. He gasped for breath.

"But once I do, and listen to me, host. You will do nothing else to stand in my way. Do I make myself clear?" Yami Bakura scowled. "You will never again interfere with my wishes to obtain the seven millennium items. And you will do whatever the fuck I tell you to do!"

He tightened his grip on Ryou's throat. The pale boy nodded fervently.

"Good." He smiled, and tossed Ryou aside like a discarded piece of fools' gold. He stumbled trying to climb back to his feet.

"But… but you have to promise not to… not to leave. Not until you've been through all of my memories!"

Yami Bakura looked at him. This was obviously some sort of stalling tactic, to keep him away from the pharaoh until the former ruler of Egypt could discover his past identity. But the prospect of keeping his host permanently out of the way was an enticing one, and probably a bargain he wouldn't be able to seal at any other time.

This time, and this time only, the pharaoh would just have to wait.

"Fine." He agreed, and folded his arms at his waist. He cocked his head to the side, and stared at Ryou. "What the hell are you waiting for? Let's just get this over with so I can get on with my time. I have work to do."

Ryou nodded, reaching for the door out of his yami's soul room. He slowly turned the handle, and the metal door creaked open. The dim corridor erased the shadows in the tomb-like interior, stinging Yami Bakura's eyes momentarily.

"Just get moving, host!" he shouted impatiently.

Ryou stepped into the corridor, opening the door to his own soul room.

It was completely white, the walls barren and chipping. Although light spread into every corner of the sanctuary, it did little to soften the appearance of the room. Instead, it only emphasized the open space and the emptiness it produced.

Ryou motioned for his yami to walk inside.

Grunting lightly, Yami Bakura did so, and Ryou shut the door tightly behind him. Bracing himself against the metal frame, he pushed it harder, forcing his yami to keep his promise.

At least, for now anyway, Yugi and his other friends were safe.


	14. They wouldn't wake up

"Stupid host." Yami Bakura mused, dragging his way through the boy's soul room. The light hurt his sensitive eyes, so used to the dark crevices in tombs and the realities of traveling by night. And scent of cleanliness stung his nostrils like hospital disinfectant.

It didn't take him long to realize that the smell really was disinfectant. The white walls surrounding him lined the empty corridor in a hospital ward. Slick tiles on the floor glistened under his feet from the fluorescent lights hanging above him. Doctors and nurses bustled around him, walking in and out of doors, and talking amongst themselves. They paid him no heed.

"Heh. So the brat has been in the hospital before I sent him there." Yami Bakura scoffed. "What the hell does he want me to see in here?"

Suddenly two large doors bust open. A team of doctors rushed alongside two gurneys. The doctor in front shoved Yami Bakura aside. Cries of an ambulance wailed in the distance.

"Move, Move!" they shouted, forcing him against the wall. As they ran, more doctors and nurses ran up to join them, offering artificial ventilation and assessing injuries, always attempting to hide the grim predictions from their eyes.

"What's the big idea?" Yami Bakura growled under his breath.

"Sir, what do we have here?" a hospital resident asked from beneath a surgical mask.

"Automobile accident. Head on collision with a truck that spun out of control." One of the rescue workers answered, forcing himself to keep a stoic expression. "These two were in the front seat. Mother and daughter."

The doctors swarmed around the bodies.

"Names – Anna and Amane Bakura." His voice sped with each sentence.

Yami Bakura's ears perked when he heard his name. He quickly pushed himself up from the wall and strained to get a better view. That, however, was more difficult than he would have liked.

"The girl suffered from a severe blow to the head. Pieces of debris have penetrated her skull. She was unresponsive at the scene. Probable neck injury. She went into convulsions on the ride here. We've barely been able to stabilize her."

Yami Bakura stared, speechless.

The girl was young, around the age of twelve. Her head was strapped in place, to prevent any unnecessary motion. Blood knotted in her thick black hair, keeping shards of glass fully in place. She showed no signs of consciousness, to the point that expression seemed peaceful amidst the disaster.

"Fracture of the second and third vertebrae." One of the doctors announced. "If she survives, she'll be paralyzed from the neck down."

"If she survives." An older doctor reiterated, as if to drive the point home. He flipped through a chart rapidly. "I don't want to hear any if's from my team."

"There's significant bleeding and pressure around the brain." Another doctor shouted. "Get her into the O.R. immediately!"

"Sir, we're losing her!"

"Move it!"

The head surgeon turned to the other gurney, and Yami Bakura stretched his neck to see around him.

The woman was thin, with very fragile features. The fresh blood gave her the unearthly appearance of a stained piece of pottery. The white hair, soft and beautiful despite being rustled, looked a lot like Ryou's. There was little doubt in his mind. She had to be his mother.

"She was the driver. Severe blow to the abdominal area from the steering wheel, probable splenic rupture, punctured lung. Closed head injury. She was awake at the scene, but lost consciousness on the way over."

"Blood pressure dropping rapidly." A nurse shouted. Cold sweat dripped from her chin. "We're losing her!"

"Move! Now!" the doctor pushed the gurney along. "What are you waiting for?"

Again, Yami Bakura found himself pushed against the wall, this time more forcefully. He lost sight of the woman as the doctors rushed through another set of double doors.

"Oh Ra…" he paused, watching the doors swing back and forth before they closed. The doctors' footsteps could still be heard racing through another hallway. They looked to be in bad shape, worse than many of his past victims. Yami Bakura didn't know much about the medicine of the modern world, but in Egypt, they would have been long dead.

"Excuse me, Sir. You have to leave."

The voice of a young nurse pulled him out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"You have to leave." She repeated. "This is a restricted area, sir."

"Are they going to be okay?" he asked, his voice surprisingly soft. There was even a small hint of concern.

"We don't know yet, sir, but if you come with me out to the waiting area, we will tell you as soon as the doctors are finished." She smiled, and put her hand on his left shoulder, gesturing him towards the first set of doors. Yami Bakura followed her, muttering a short curse under his breath.

He walked into the waiting room, and sat down in one of the chairs. He folded his arms across his waist, and growled.

"I don't know why I'm even bothering to wait to see if they are okay or not." He whispered to himself, unaware that he was speaking aloud. "Why should it matter to me?"

He rolled his eyes, his attention captured by someone in the far corner of the room.

A thin eight-year-old boy curled up in one of the big chairs, pulling his knees up to his chest. His left arm hung in a sling, and his cheek was covered with a large splotchy bruise. He kept staring at the double-doors, brushing his shaggy white hair out of his eyes. Normally brown eyes, still wet with tears, were now red and swollen. He had obviously been crying for a long time.

"It can't be…" Yami Bakura whispered, unable to take his eyes from the boy. "Ryou?"

He watched the little Ryou for a while. Doctors came and went. The double doors opened and closed several times, but no familiar faces appeared. The sun was starting to set, and no one had even given the child in the corner a second glance.

Seeing as nothing was happening, and time certainly wasn't moving any faster, he eventually decided to walk over and pretend to associate with the boy.

"What's wrong with you?" Yami Bakura whispered, his voice sharp despite an attempt at kindness. "You've been crying for almost an hour."

Little Ryou turned his gaze from the doors to the man in front of him. The angry scowl frightened him, and he curled farther back into the chair, bumping his arm in the process. He whimpered in pain, and tried not to cry even more.

Yami Bakura rolled his eyes, and kneeled down closer to the child's level.

"Look. I'm not mad at you. You don't need to be afraid, all right?" he growled, but it had little effect.

"I… I…" Ryou choked on a wibble.

"You what?"

"I… I want Mommy… an..and Amane…" Ryou answered, sobbing into the back of the chair. "Ammy… She… she didn't wake up… I… I kept shaking her… and… and she didn't wake up…"

Yami Bakura's scowl softened.

"Mommy tried too… Mommy tried, and… and cried… and cried… and the ambulance came… And then… then Mommy wouldn't wake up either…" he continued, still choking on his tears. "I… I held her hand… and… and rubbed it… Just like the doctor man said to… But… but it didn't wake her up. I… I want my Mommy!"

Ryou wept openly, not even bothering to wipe the tears from his face. They splattered messily onto the chair below.

"Mister, I just want them to wake up…"

Yami Bakura couldn't stop old memories of his own parents from surfacing as little Ryou cried. Watching them burn, their flesh melting from their bones. Hearing them scream as the pharaoh's men tortured and killed them. And he remembered how much he cried. As much as he attempted to silence it, he was beginning to feel pity for the poor boy.

"Shh…" he tried to comfort the child, putting a hand on his shoulder "There, there. Enough crying already, all right?"

Ryou looked up meekly.

"Um… Why don't we go see if we can find out where your Mommy is. Maybe the doctors or whatever just forgot about you out here." He volunteered, reaching out a hand to the small boy.

Ryou curled even farther back into the chair.

"What?" Yami Bakura scoffed. "I thought you wanted to find your mother!"

"M..Mommy told me… n..never to go anywhere with… with strangers…" he answered softly, shaking from Yami Bakura's last outburst.

"Oh." He replied. "Well, you can go with me. I won't hurt you. Okay?"

"O..okay… My… My name is Ryou… What's your… your name, Mister?" Ryou squeaked, still crying a little.

"Uh…" Yami Bakura paused again. If he answered with the name 'Bakura,' there would be a lot of explaining to do. He eventually gave a response. "My… um… friends call me Yami."

"… That's a funny name." Ryou looked back up at Yami Bakura, sniffling. "Mister Yami… You have… have white hair just like me…"

"I guess I do." He replied, holding out his hand. "So, are you coming or not?"

"O…okay, Mister Yami…" He took the bigger man's hand, and climbed slowly out of the chair.

He walked up to the nurse's station in the center of the room.

"Look. This kid's been waiting over here for almost an eternity. Where the fuck is his mother?" Yami Bakura growled. "Names would be under Bakura."

The nurse, frozen for a moment by the man's harsh words, started shifting through papers and checking data on the computer. Ryou, meanwhile, held onto Yami Bakura's hand, staring up at the big desk in front of him. He couldn't see the nurse, but could hear someone typing on a big keyboard.

"Oh dear…" the woman whispered, not even daring to look her latest visitor in the eyes.

"Oh dear what?" Yami Bakura snapped.

"I'm terribly sorry, Sir." She continued, a knot forming in the back of her throat. "Anna Bakura has passed away…"

"What?" Yami Bakura screamed, tightening his grip on Ryou's hand. The boy knew immediately that something was wrong.

"Where's my Mommy, Mister Yami? Where's my Mommy?" Ryou screamed back. "What happened to her?"

"What about the girl that came in with her?" Yami Bakura turned back to the nurse, ignoring Ryou's screams for the moment. "The daughter?"

"She…" the nurse choked on her words. "She also passed."

"…A..Amane?"

Yami Bakura froze. Ryou was tugging on his arm, and his heartstrings. And from the looks of things, he was going to be the one to break it to the little boy that his mother and sister were dead.

He dropped to his knee, eye to eye with Ryou.

"Ryou, calm down for a minute and listen to me, okay?" he started, not sure what to say. "Your mom…"

"…I… I want my mommy…"

"Look. She…" he tried to find the right words, if there were any. The little boy's tears were infectious, his eyes big and endearing. "The doctors tried. But… She didn't wake up."

"They… they can make her wake up, Mister Yami." He cried, bursting into long wails. "They have to wake her up! They have to! That's what doctors do! Why won't she wake up?"

"She's never waking up, Ryou." He answered, opening his arms to offer the boy at least a shoulder to cry on. "She's never waking up."

Ryou just leapt into Yami Bakura's waiting arms, and sobbed.


	15. Castles in the Sand

Yami Bakura eventually walked out of the hospital, leaving the emotional little Ryou clinging to his mother's body. The sight disturbed him, the tiny child shaking his mother's corpse, screaming at her to wake up. But at least, or so he reasoned with himself, at least he had something to cling to. It was better than nothing.

"Why am I getting all bent out of shape about it? It's not like it matters to me." He scoffed, passing through the streets of Domino City. "He's just trying to stall, that's all. To keep me away from the pharaoh. None of this is even real."

He put his hands in his pockets, and kept strolling.

"There's got to be a way out of here." He growled. "Somewhere. He can't keep me locked in here for long."

Outside, the sun caressed his forehead, the warm air of spring carrying with it the scent of freshly blooming flowers. A bird whistled from a tree above him, as he walked through Domino City Park.

In the sandbox was a little boy in a purple shirt. Yami Bakura wouldn't have given him a second glance, except he had short white hair. He couldn't have been more than five. A woman was sitting nearby, with her hands folded neatly in her lap. A finished book was sitting beside her. It was the same woman he saw in the hospital, though very much alive.

"How do you like this castle, Mommy?" the little boy chirped, patting the intricate structure with his hands. It was incredibly detailed; Ryou had even drawn lines in the shape of bricks around the side of the castle with a stick.

"I love it, Ryou." She smiled back, watching him. "You're very good at making castles! I can even see a little drawbridge."

The child beamed with pride.

"Has Daddy has ever been in a real castle?"

"A couple of times." She answered with a smile. "And when he presents his latest paper in Germany next month, he plans on visiting a couple of castles. I'll remind him to take extra pictures for you!"

Ryou gave a half smile.

"Is something wrong?"

"I… I wish Daddy were here… in my castle. Not way across the world."

Anna Bakura opened her arms for Ryou. He rushed into her lap, and she wrapped her dainty arms around him.

"He'll be back for your birthday, sweetie. That's only a month and a half away." She replied softly. "And I know he left rather suddenly. But his team found a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings. It's not every day someone makes a discovery like that. He had to go oversee the excavation."

"I know…" Ryou pouted. "But I still miss him."

"I know." She ruffled Bakura's hair, a sure way to make him giggle. "Maybe when you're older, you can go on a trip with him. Would you like that?"

Ryou nodded excitedly.

"Can I really, Mommy?"

"I thought so. And yes. When you're older."

She smiled, and kissed Ryou gently on the nose.

"Now, dust the sand off your clothes while I go see if Amane is finished playing soccer with her friends. We need to leave the park soon if we want to get ice cream on the way home."

"Okay!"

She stood up, and walked towards the other end of the playground. Ryou did as he was told. He looked up, and his eyes caught sight of Yami Bakura standing under a large tree.

Yami Bakura tried to look away, but found himself unable to keep from staring at the happy-go-lucky tot in the sandbox.

Suddenly, another person caught Yami Bakura's attention. A dark man with a malicious glare was standing behind another tree. He scratched his stubbled chin, watching Ryou's mother walk farther away. Seizing the moment, he rolled up his tartan sleeves, and walked slowly towards the little boy.

"Excuse me, little boy," he stated gruffly. "I lost my dog around here. Have you seen one run by?"

"What the hell is he talking about?" Yami Bakura muttered to himself. "He didn't have a dog."

"Um… no… I haven't…" Ryou answered back, with his typical shy smile. One foot traced a line in the sand as he looked down. "Sorry, mister…"

"I know he's around here somewhere." The strange man reached out his hand. "Will you help me find him?"

Ryou stepped back slightly.

"…M..mommy says I'm not supposed to… to talk to strangers." Ryou replied, his knees starting to tremble.

"Oh, I understand." The man smiled, making Ryou feel a little relieved. It was shortlived, however. "But I didn't say you had a choice."

The large man jumped forward, and grabbed the little Ryou by his left arm. His hand more than circled the child's thin wrist. He pulled the boy forward, picking him up off the ground.

"Mommy!" Ryou started screaming as loud as his meek voice could carry. "Help! Mommy! Help me! Mommy!"

"Why, that…" Yami Bakura felt his heart sink into his stomach.

"Stop whining, you little brat!" he shouted, putting his other hand over Ryou's mouth to muffle the screams.

But Anna Bakura had already heard her son's pleas, and racing towards him.

"Ryou!" she shouted, with Amane almost on her heels. "You scoundrel! Let go of my baby!"

The man started to run.

"Police! Somebody help!" she screamed, as she darted after the kidnapper. "That man just took my baby! Police! Anybody!"

"She'll never catch up to him in time." Yami Bakura gasped, seeing the man make a mad dash for his car. "He'll…"

The spirit of the millennium ring could easily imagine what the dirty man wanted with Ryou. And none of the thoughts that came to mind were pleasant. The mental image of his young hikari, gagged, beaten, and raped before finally having his throat slit by a sadistic deranged man was enough to make him sick.

It didn't help that his hikari was currently five years old.

Without even thinking of the consequences, he leapt from behind the tree and started chasing the kidnapper as well.

"Get your slimy ass back here, you freak!" Yami Bakura shouted, as he closed the distance between himself and the stranger. He still possessed the endurance and agility from his many years of robbing tombs and running from guards. Not to mention, he was far closer to the deviant than Ryou's mother. "Put the boy down!"

He jumped between the man and the parking lot.

"You got shit in your ears?" Yami Bakura growled. "I said, put the boy down. Or I'll rip your fucking arm off!"

The man laughed, but Yami Bakura ran at him, slamming his fist into the man's large stomach. Stunned, he never saw the second punch coming, or the third. He fell to the ground, clutching a broken jaw. Ryou fell out of his grip, screaming as he hit the ground.

"Oh, Ryou!" Anna Bakura shouted, finally catching up to them. "Oh, my baby. My god, my god!"

She ran up to him, and wrapped her arms around his trembling body.

"Oh my god, Ryou. Ryou are you all right?"

Amane ran up behind her, hugging her little brother as well. Ryou nodded weakly.

"Oh, I was so scared." She whispered, tears streaming down her eyes.

"I… I'm… okay…" Ryou whispered back, trying to stop his own tears. "That… that man stopped the bad guy…"

Ryou pointed up, just as Yami Bakura had turned to make his escape. He froze, knowing he should have ran off after knocking the man out.

"Sir, please. Let me at least thank you." Anna Bakura called out to him. "You… you saved my baby. I am eternally grateful."

Yami Bakura turned back around. Ryou's mother stared at him with nothing but love in her eyes. Ryou, still in the protective arms of his older sister, gazed up at him as though he were a saint.

"Hmph. It's nothing nobody else standing where I was would have done, you know." He scoffed, folding his arms at his waist.

"If you weren't there, I don't know what would have happened…" she smiled, despite Yami Bakura's eye roll. "Please, at least let me buy you some ice cream. We were all on our way there right now."

Amane and Ryou perked up at the sound of ice cream on a hot day such as this.

"Please, mister?" Ryou whispered, acting very polite. "I… Thank you for saving me."

"It would mean a lot to all of us, Sir." She smiled.

He exchanged looks with all of them. He couldn't see any way around it.

"Fine." He growled.

Ryou grinned, happily displaying an almost full set of little teeth. He bounced up, and gave his rescuer's legs a big hug.

"Thank you, mister!"

Yami Bakura paused, almost in shock. His hikari was hugging him. And his legs never felt so warm.


	16. Ice Cream

Yami Bakura sat with the family in the ice cream parlor. He twirled a spoon through his cup of double chocolate chip, watching the two children greedily licking their ice cream cones. Ryou nibbled on his soft vanilla, blushing occasionally at the cold dessert's touch on his lips. Amane was more adventurous, biting through the bottom of her cone first, and proceeding to suck the remaining strawberry ice cream out the wrong end.

Yami Bakura had to admit it to himself. He looked as though he belonged with the family. Anyone walking by would have simply assumed him to be Anna Bakura's oldest son. But he wasn't.

For a moment, he almost wished he were. He could have been part of a loving family, surrounded by such caring people. He knew, of course, having seen it already, that the family wouldn't last much longer. In a few years, the little boy sitting across from him would be eating ice cream all alone.

He didn't know why it suddenly depressed him. It's not like he actually cared. But every time he looked over at Ryou nibbling at the tips of his waffle cone, he thought back to the child clinging to his dead mother's body, shaking her in a desperate attempt to wake her up.

"I just wanted to thank you, again, for what you did, Mister… What was your name again?" Anna Bakura sent his train of thought crashing off the tracks.

"Oh. Um… My friends call me Yami." He answered softly.

"Thank you, Yami. Thank you for saving my little boy."

"Oh, yes. Thank you very much, Mister Yami." Ryou smiled, looking up from his ice cream cone for a moment. Amane nodded, as a few drops of melting strawberry fell from the open hole at the bottom of the cone. Noticing the splatter, she quickly covered the hole with her mouth again.

"It wasn't anything special." Yami Bakura rolled his eyes again. "Anybody could have done it. You don't need to make such a big deal about it."

Anna Bakura just smiled.

"I do. I love my little Ryou that much." She replied. Her smile was infectious, and Yami Bakura couldn't ignore its power. "That's why I'm so very thankful."

"Hmph." He sighed, his voice losing its harsh edge for the time being. "He really loves you too."

"Oh, I know he does." She answered, glancing at her son. His nose was deep in the ice cream cone, his tongue searching for that last treasured drop of vanilla goodness.

"You hear that, kid?" Yami Bakura wasn't quite sure what to say, or if he should say anything at all. "You… You should always love them. They won't be around forever."

Ryou looked up from the ice cream cone, with big sad eyes.

"That wasn't very nice to say, Mister Yami." Amane butted in, taking a break from crunching the dry parts of her soggy cone.

"No, I mean you're lucky." He tried again, quickly skimming his mind for the right words. Although, he didn't know why he was bothering to say anything at all. "When I was your age, I didn't have anybody like that. My parents weren't around. They were…"

He paused, not wanting to finish his statement.

"They weren't around, all right?"

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Anna Bakura offered a consoling sigh. She understood what he was trying to say.

"Just, always appreciate them. That's what I'm saying." He finally sighed as well. "Spend as much time as you can with them, while you can."

"Oh…" Ryou thought aloud, putting his cone down on a napkin. "That… that makes sense… We don't see Daddy much… so… so we should love him even more… when… when we do?"

Yami Bakura was going to say something else, but Ryou's mother spoke first.

"Exactly, Sweety. We'll spend more time together, all of us, as a family real soon."

Ryou smiled, and Amane once again diverted her attention to the cone in her hands. Yami Bakura expected to be scolded by Anna Bakura, but instead, he was met with silence. Seeing no need to clarify his point, he answered her with silence as well.

A few more minutes passed before Mrs. Bakura looked up at the clock.

"Oh, dear me. Children, we really need to finish up here. I still have to run by the bank before it closes today." She announced, already gathering up her things.

"Do we have to?" Amane whined. She already had her eye on a second ice cream cone, perhaps with sprinkles.

Her mother noticed the wandering gaze towards the counter, and quickly intervened.

"Amane, you've had quite enough sugar for one afternoon." She smiled. "But maybe I'll make a small fruit smoothie for dessert instead of fresh fruit. How does that sound?"

The girl turned back around. She thought for a minute, twirling her finger through her black hair.

"Oh, okay, Mom."

"You heard me, Ryou. It's time to leave now." She stood up, as her son was licking his sticky fingers.

"Do we have to?" he looked up. "I… I want to stay with Mister Yami…"

The plea took Yami Bakura completely off guard. He simply stared at his young hikari and blinked.

"Please? Can't we play with Mister Yami? Please?"

"Ryou, I'm sure he has many other things to get done today too." Anna Bakura scolded her son lightly. "I'm sure you'll see him soon."

She glanced back at Yami Bakura for corroboration.

"Oh, Right." He quickly realized her intentions. Plus, if he didn't agree, he knew he'd be dragged around with the kids for the rest of his afterlife, and he'd never get out of these memories. Of course Ryou wanted him to stay. The longer he was in here, the greater chance there was of the pharaoh escaping with the other millennium items! "Your mother's right. I've got to go… shopping."

He quickly made an excuse.

"Grocery shopping. That's where I was headed when I saw the bad guy in the park." He lied, conveniently as always.

"Did you hear that, Ryou?" his mother repeated.

"I know…" Ryou looked down to the floor. He climbed out of the booth, leaving the discarded ice cream cone on the table. Amane slid out behind him, grabbing it as she went by. One person's trash is another person's dessert.

"Now, be polite. I want both of you to shake Mister Yami's hand and thank him for coming to have ice cream with us." She smiled, rubbing Ryou gently on the head. He nodded, and waited for Yami Bakura to slide out of the booth as well.

"Thank you for… for having ice cream with me, Mister Yami…" he smiled innocently. "I… I hope we can play together sometime…"

Yami Bakura shook the child's hand politely. He couldn't help but smile back.

"I have the funny feeling we'll see each other again." He replied, making sure not to tell too much.

Amane shook his hand as well, and they all walked towards the door. Yami Bakura held the door open for them, watching them walk towards the bank on the next street corner. He let out a long sigh.

"Ra, I don't know why I let that get to me." He whispered aloud. "Yeah, sure he's going to lose them in a few years. But what difference does it really make? Hmph. Fucking runt is making me lose my touch. I should have killed both of them myself."

He leaned back against the open door.

"Then the brat would have something to cry about in the future."

He turned his head, and almost did a double take.

"… what the…"


	17. A Boy and his White Wizard

A thin teenage boy dressed in a school uniform walked across the street, towards the Kame Game Shop. His long white hair blew in the wind, which, from Yami Bakura's perspective, had suddenly arisen out of nowhere. The boy's hands were tucked deep inside his pockets, his eyes hardly leaving the sidewalk.

There was no mistaking it. It was Ryou, probably around age 12 or 13.

"What the fuck?" Yami Bakura whispered under his breath. "I just left the runty little host going that way. How the hell is he bigger over there?"

Yami Bakura watched the older Ryou stop in front of the game shop window. He stared, longingly, at something, before finally deciding to go inside.

Curious, the spirit of the millennium ring decided to follow him.

He opened the door just as Yugi's grandfather approached Ryou.

"Ah, is there something I could help you with today, lad?" Sugoroku Mutou smiled, stepping out from behind the cash register.

"Oh…" Ryou whispered back shyly. He avoided any eye contact with the elder man, mostly keeping his gaze to the floor. "I… I was interested in the… the demo of this table top role playing game… in the window."

"You must mean Monster World!" Sugoroku Mutou smiled. "There's a new expansion set coming out next week. If you would like to try it out, I will add you to the guest list for the demonstration. We could use a few more players."

"Th..thank you. I would like that." Ryou attempted to smile back, but could hardly muster it. "It has been a while since I've played games. Is it a lot like Mazes and Monsters?"

"Very similar." The shopkeeper added, and took a book off the shelf. "This is a starters guide for the game. You might be interested in getting one. It will help you make your first character, and if you're interested in leading a game, it will help you design your first game maps as well."

Ryou took the book into his thin hands, flipping through some of the pages.

"I… I think I would like this… yes." He nodded weakly, and reached into his pocket. Ryou pulled out a few bills, and laid them on the counter. "I would like to buy it."

"Wait. I remember this." Yami Bakura paused, watching Ryou pay for the book. "He already has the ring!"

Yami Bakura remembered the book too. It was what first gave him the idea of sealing souls into lead figurines, a way to test the awesome power of the millennium ring. It was the basis for his latest scheme too, not to put too fine a point on it, something Ryou didn't even know about yet! But it would be his greatest achievement!

"That's right. Buy me my ticket to the millennium puzzle, host." Yami Bakura chuckled under his breath.

Ryou didn't even notice the second customer in the store. He simply thanked Sugoroku Mutuo, put the book under his arm, and slowly waked out.

Yami Bakura watched. He knew, inside the ring, that he was eager for Ryou to see what was in that book. But outside, he never realized how sad his host was when he purchased it.

"What crawled in his corpse and died?" he scoffed to himself, as he immediately opened the door to follow the boy.

They reached a home that Yami Bakura was unfamiliar with. It wasn't Bakura's apartment, but the home of his grandparents. Ryou didn't stay there often, or even for very long. But Yami Bakura remembered bits and pieces of the place.

"Oh, right." Yami Bakura mused, as he watched Ryou walking up the steps to the old house. "I think I remember this now. He stayed here after his dad died when that pathetic tomb collapsed."

As much as he didn't want to admit it, the deteriorating outer walls of the house reminded him of his own home in Kul Elna.

"Ryou! Is that you?" a scratchy voice rang out the second he opened the creaking door.

"Yes… Grandpa…" Ryou shouted back, his voice completely apathetic despite the forced volume. "It's me. I'm home from school."

The door closed behind him, and Yami Bakura made his way to a loose window, where he could hear and see everything that was going on inside.

"What took you so long?" the elder man asked, looking up from the newspaper he was reading. His once black hair was now a subtle gray. His complexion was covered in liver spots, and his loose skin sagged over them.

"I… I stopped at… at the Kame Game shop to buy a book…"

The old man picked up his cane, and struck Ryou on the leg with it.

"Foolishness." The man shouted. "A boy your age shouldn't be off playing games!"

"It's… just a book, grandpa…"

He was hit again, this time in the knee.

"You have schooling to do." He insisted. "Why, when your father was your age, he did nothing but schooling. Day in, day out. He cared about it! He didn't run off playing Mazes and Monsters like you. He was serious about his education."

Ryou fought back tears at the mention of his father. It hadn't been very long since he died.

"Grandpa… it's… please… don't talk about Dad… Not right now…"

He sniffled as he felt the cold outline of the millennium ring press against his chest. It was the final thing his father sent back before the accident. And for that reason alone, Ryou never took it off.

"No respect, no respect from the youth of today. That's for sure!" he grunted, and returned to reading his newspaper. He only looked up when he saw that Ryou hadn't moved yet. "What are you still standing here for? Don't you have schooling to attend to?"

"Right…" Ryou bowed his head respectfully, and dashed up the stairs as quickly as he could.

Yami Bakura had hardly climbed up the window when he looked down and saw Ryou walking out the front door again. It was clearly a different day; his host was wearing a white t-shirt instead of his school jacket.

"Time flies in this realm, doesn't it." Yami Bakura grumbled, and climbed back down the drainpipe. He resumed following Ryou, until the boy walked through the doors of the Kame Game Shop.

Ryou looked around. A small table had been set up in the back corner, with Sugoroku Mutou at its head. A couple of other people sat around in the other chairs, talking amongst themselves. They paid Ryou no heed when the bell ringed, and Ryou didn't raise his head to acknowledge them either.

"Ah, you came back to play, I see." The elder man smiled, holding out a pair of ten-sided dice. "There's still plenty of room. Come have a seat."

Ryou nodded politely, and quietly did as he was told. He took his bag from his shoulder, and pulled out the book again.

"Have you already made your character? Or do you want to use one of my pre-made character sheets?"

"Oh, No, sir. I have one." Ryou whispered, also pulling a figurine out of his bag. It was a small, but intricately carved, white wizard. The long white hair and weak smile made it an exact replica of its sculptor.

Unbeknownst to his grandfather, Ryou had spent all weekend making the tiny figurine. And to be honest with himself, it was the happiest weekend he had in a long time.

"You have quite the talent for that, young man." Sugoroku smiled, and put the white wizard figurine at the starting gate next to everybody else's. "And an interesting choice. Most young boys pick warriors or magic gunmen for their first characters. Every once and a while I see a beast tamer, but not usually a healer."

"I… I like those abilities." Ryou whispered, a little unsure of his choice.

"Do you have a name for your character?"

"Oh." Ryou paused. "White Wizard… Bakura…"

He answered the elder gentleman with a weak smile, and Sugoroku filled in the character name at the top of his list.

"All right. As a level one white wizard, he has apprentice level talents." Sugoroku continued. "That includes using his magic to heal the other characters, and to attack with an 'apprentice big bang.' But if you're going to use healing magic, make sure you do it in time. His magic isn't strong enough yet to raise other characters from the dead."

"Raise from the dead?" Ryou's attention was grabbed.

"Yes. If a white wizard gains enough experience, he will be able to raise others from the dead. It's a valuable skill to have in a tight situation."

Ryou sat back and sighed. His thoughts immediately raced to his sister, his mother, and his father. He wished the white wizard were real, that its power really could bring people back from the dead, that he could be with them once more. It was a silly thought, one he scolded himself from even thinking. He knew it was just a game, but still he couldn't help but dream about it.

Yami Bakura watched the entire game from the window. As a team, they succeeded at defeating Zorc, which sent a wave of repulsion down his spine. In the final round, it was his host's attack that actually finished the creature off. And his host was smiling about it.

Yami Bakura continued to watch, almost mystified by Ryou's smile. It wasn't like all the other smiles he had seen in the mirror. It was a real smile, something he had never actually seen before. At least, he had never seen it from his hikari before.


	18. Face to Face

"He could smile like that any time he wants." Yami Bakura scoffed. "It's not my fault he doesn't. And I don't even know why I'm even bothering to follow the stupid kid around this memory world."

He grumbled to himself, turning around for a moment. As he did, he was shocked to see Ryou Bakura walk by him again.

He quickly turned back to the window of the Kame Game Shop, but it was dark inside. It was still early, and Sugoroku hadn't even opened the doors for the day. He glanced back over his shoulder.

His host walked slowly, almost aimlessly down the sidewalk. An air of despondency circled him like a thick cloud of shadows. It was so strong, that Yami Bakura almost fell backwards under its power.

And the image kept replaying itself.

Day after day, or so it seemed, he kept watching Ryou walk across that sidewalk. His hair grew a little longer, and the uniform kept changing, but the spirit of the millennium ring could hardly take his eyes off Ryou's face.

Over time, even the depression in his eyes was fading. After a while, it just looked empty. He walked like a prisoner in the pharaoh's dungeon, having long realized that escape was a dreamer's impossibility. It was a feeling that the yami knew all too well, and one he never thought to look for in his host.

"I wonder if… he knows I'm there yet." Yami Bakura mused.

His thoughts came to a sudden stop when the figure in front of him accidentally tripped over a crack in the sidewalk. His book bag spilled open as the youth skidded across the cement.

He lay still for a moment, physically all right, but emotionally destroyed. It was as though he just didn't have the will to stand back up, here or anywhere.

And Yami Bakura found himself unable to stay hidden under the alcove of the game shop.

"Are you all right?" he asked, a little unsure of his voice. Ryou, surprised at the voice above him, turned his head weakly.

"I'm fine." He whispered, his tone completely stoic. For the most part, he kept his eyes on the ground, almost afraid to even look at anyone in the eye. "I… I just lost my footing."

Yami Bakura offered his host a hand. Ryou, surprised, took it, and slowly stood back up. Yami Bakura froze, never really holding the hikari's hand before. He never realized how thin it seemed. In fact, Ryou 's entire body looked fragile, like a final leaf, about to be thrown violently off a dying tree by an approaching sandstorm.

"Are you sure? You sure as hell don't look fine."

Ryou couldn't believe his ears either. It was the first time in weeks anyone had actually addressed him, yet alone expressed concern.

"Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to trouble you…" he suddenly pulled his hand back, fearful of what could happen if he didn't. He quickly tried to gather up his papers, while not taking his eyes off the stranger in front of him. "I'd better go now…"

"Why?" Yami Bakura asked.

"You're… a nice person… You shouldn't be around me…" Ryou whispered, lowering his head again, and running away from the spirit of the millennium ring.

Yami Bakura called out for Ryou to wait, but the boy didn't listen. He simply kept running.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Yami Bakura scowled, glancing down at a couple pieces of paper that must have fallen out of Ryou's school bag. He bent down, and picked them all up.

One was a letter to Amane, his dead sister, probably written during class. The other was a notice from the school. Ryou had just been expelled. The letter to his sister just recounted the notice, revealing that it was the fifth school this year he'd been thrown out of.

"I know it has something to do with everyone always falling into comas, sister." Yami Bakura read aloud to himself. "I tried my best to avoid everyone. But I accidentally made an acquaintance. I guess I will have to try harder. I'm running out of schools."

Yami Bakura looked up, in the direction that his host had run.

"Yeah." He sighed, involuntarily. "I'm there."

Yami Bakura sat down on the curb. He didn't want to follow his host any more. Despite three thousand years of hardened exterior, the face of the boy was almost too much to bear. And as much as he refused to admit it to himself, Ryou just reminded him of himself, a young boy in Kul Elna sleeping with one eye open.

"… Ryou…" he whispered, unable to shake everything that he experienced from his mind. He seemed so… lonely…


	19. The Final Moments of Battle City

A moment later, and the landscape around him faded into a dull white.

"Now what?" he asked himself, looking around. The stone walls, painted white, were chipping. The room was bright, compared to what he was familiar with, but the light was obviously fading.

It only took a second to realize where he was. This was his hikari's side of the soul. He looked around the room. It was empty, meaning his host was in control of his own body.

"At least that's over." Yami Bakura smiled, eager to get back to his soul room, and out of the body.

With any luck, Yugi and his pathetic friends hadn't gone far into the pharaoh's memory world. And if he acted swiftly, he could even catch up to them before they reached the palace. Years of planning would not be all for naught.

"I bet he thought he could run away while I sifted through his pathetic memories. Not like he can get very far on his own in the desert. I'll just turn this ship around, and get right back to business."

He turned around to leave the room, but the door was gone. The white walls circled the soul room completely.

"Great. This is another memory." He growled under his breath, kicking the dusty floor. "Pathetic host! You're wasting my time!"

He stormed up to the front of the room, where he could see through Ryou's eyes.

"What the hell is he doing now?"

But looking through those big brown eyes made his countenance soften a little. It was a rather familiar sight, the floor of the dueling arena on Kaiba's Battle Blimp. This must have been during the Battle City finals.

Although he couldn't see anything, he could hear his own voice talking with that of the traitorous tomb keeper, Malik Isthar. Their plan to force the pharaoh to surrender was succeeding. The former king of Egypt would never sacrifice a friend to gain a mere victory.

"I remember this." He sighed, looking through the eyes of his host. The boy was clutching his injured arm, his vision blurring from blood loss. He had fallen to his knees, too weak to finish the duel. And he was only that weak because he, his yami, had taken control of the body, and forced it out of the hospital.

'Yugi, please…' his host was on the ground, whimpering like an injured puppy. 'Please, help me… Where am I? What am I doing here?'

From the corner of Ryou's eyes, he could see Joey, Tristan, Tea, and Duke shouting. They wanted Seto Kaiba to land the blimp, so that they could get Ryou Bakura back in the hospital.

'Please help me…' Ryou gasped again, grabbing his arm as the blood soaked completely through the bandage.

The walls of the soul room trembled as Ryou's breathing grew erratic. Yami Bakura jumped, thinking for a moment that the floor might give way, and send him falling into the shadow realm. But it didn't.

It was just a sign that the owner of the body was quickly losing consciousness. Not only was he in considerable pain, but he never had the chance to recover from the massive blood loss of the original stabbing.

"If I had let the blood transfusion finish, he would at least be standing under his own power." Yami Bakura mused, almost regretful. He tried to shake that regret out of his mind. "But I needed you weak! You'd fight back if you weren't."

He turned back towards the eyes. His own spirit body was arguing with Malik. He was positive the pharaoh would surrender the duel in order to save the life of his friend. Bakura, on the other hand, both then and now, knew that was an unlikely possibility.

"Malik didn't know the bastard like I know the bastard." Yami Bakura sneered, watching the events play out. "Anyone who could slaughter an entire village to make seven pathetic trinkets wouldn't mind killing one opponent. Especially if it meant he could save his stupid world."

He watched himself take control of the body, and take the blast for his host. The entire soul room shook again, the walls screaming with palpable agony. But they soon quieted down, growing substantially warmer.

"What? Does he think this means something?" Yami Bakura scoffed. "If he died, I wouldn't have a body. I did that for myself. No one else!"

But he still jumped a little as he watched Ryou's body collapsed lifelessly onto that floor. He was so weak. Barely a breath came from his weary chest. Ryou's name was being shouted from all directions, as Yugi jumped off the other platform, and dashed towards his host. He lifted the body gently.

'It's all right now, we're going to get you some help.'

'Yugi…' Ryou was barely conscious, his eyes unable to focus. He couldn't even see the pointy haired pharaoh kneeling right in front of him.

'Here, I'll carry him.' Tristan volunteered, and they lifted him up onto the other teenager's back.

At that point, Ryou, unable to keep his eyes open any longer, passed out. Yami Bakura watched his viewscreen go black. He just scoffed.

Turning around, he watched his hikari's soul appear in the room. The boy was unconscious.


	20. Internal Punishment

Even in his soul room, his sanctuary from the outside world, Ryou was unconscious. And it was not exactly how Yami Bakura had come to envision it.

Ryou leaned, slumped against the soul room wall. Even though he was in spirit form, blood still dribbled freely from the wound on his left arm. The bandage had fallen off, resting uneasily on his lower arm.

"They're… emotional wounds…" Yami Bakura found himself whispering, something centuries of scarred and broken knuckles had taught him. "Not just physical ones."

He watched the blood stain his hikari's pale skin. In his lifeless state, he looked a lot like his mother on the hospital gurney.

Yami Bakura fought to shake that image out of his head.

It didn't mean anything, and it never would.

But after an agonizing stretch of silence, Yami Bakura bent down and picked up the fallen piece of white linen.

The boy in front of him looked so broken, so defeated. No matter how much he attempted to rationalize his motives for entering the memories of his hikari, he couldn't erase them from his mind.

The tender child, tears still pouring from burning eyes, clinging to the body of his dead mother, trying in vain to make her wake up. He could still hear him rightfully crying and wailing.

The solemn boy, despondently dragging himself home each day to a broken home, knowing that everyone who cared about him was dead and gone, clinging to the millennium ring as the only symbol he had left of the life he wished he still had. Of all the things to make into such a symbol.

The neglected teen, wandering aimlessly through the streets of Domino City, moving from school to school, fearful of getting close to anyone, lest they die as well. No wonder he wanted to be so close to Yugi and the others. No wonder he always sacrificed himself for them. Even if they despised him, they at least allowed him to come near them.

The victim of so much abuse. Abuse that he, his yami, was often responsible for.

"Who am I kidding…" he finally whispered to himself, not thinking anyone could hear him. He wrapped the open wound, and tied a tight knot in the bandage. The pressure would stop the bleeding. "I guess you do know a lot about being alone, don't you."

Suddenly the image in front of him disappeared.

"Yeah… I… I do."


	21. All for Nothing

"I do…" Ryou just sighed. He was standing behind his yami, leaning on the door to his soul room. He had been standing there for a long time, contemplating, everything he had seen in his yami's memories slowly running through his weary mind.

His yami's perception was dead on. This was merely a stalling tactic. But even after all this time, Ryou didn't have any tangible way to stop the spirit of the millennium ring from going after his friends. If anything, he was starting to wonder whether stopping him was even the right thing to do. And that thought haunted him just as much as the rest of the memories he had observed.

Ryou turned his eyes on the floor, lest he incite even more rage in the former king of thieves. Yami Bakura stood up, and turned to face his host.

"Yeah, you do."

Ryou watched the spirit of the millennium ring carefully. He made no sudden movements towards the door. Instead, he simply stood there. Ryou wasn't sure what was going on inside his head, but he feared that it involved some sort of punishment.

"Yami… I… I'm sorry I went into your soul room."

He stared and sneered, but didn't say anything.

"I… I went into your memories… trying to find a way to stop you from hurting my friends. But… you… you probably know that…"

"Yeah, so what." Yami Bakura stared at him, finally finding his voice again. "You wasted my valuable time making me trot through your little picture show. So what do you have? Go ahead. Try and stop me now. You know what? I dare you! Go ahead!"

He laughed a little, though it seemed hollow for a change, waiting for Ryou to make a move.

If anything, hearing his own memories play out from behind the soul room door reminded him how many times he had tried such a plan in the past. It also reminded him of how many times he had failed.

"I… I can't."

He smirked, and shoved his hikari out of the way. Ryou fell back on to the floor. His face slammed into the stone as he fought to stifle any forming tears.

Yami Bakura pushed the soul room door open, and started to walk into the hallway. The battle was over, before it even began.

"You… you're not alone, you know…" Ryou finally whispered, not even bothering to stand up from where his yami pushed him down.

Yami Bakura froze. And he turned back around.

"What did you just say?"

Ryou looked up.

"I said… you're not alone, yami… You… You've been alone for a long time, but you're not alone anymore."

"Yeah right." He scoffed and started walking away again.

"You… You do have me..."

Yami Bakura froze again, hearing the little child's voice again. 'Can't we play with Mister Yami? Please?' He could even feel the warmth around his legs from where the little version of his hikari hugged him.

He hated to admit it to himself, but he liked the memory of sitting in the ice cream parlor with the Bakura family, watching the kids nibble on their cones. For the first time in his entire life, he felt like he belonged somewhere, even if it was only at a little table in an imaginary world.

"… I guess I do have you." He whispered from the hallway. He paused for what seemed like an eternity to Ryou. "And you're right… Nothing will change."

Ryou listened, hearing the door to his yami's soul room slam.

And he sighed.

If nothing will change, then all of that was… for nothing…


	22. Maybe we Should

That realization hit Ryou hard. Everything had been said and done. There was nothing he could do to stop his yami from going after the pharaoh now.

He could see it all play out, just as his yami wanted it to. Yami Bakura would enter the tablet, just as he had been scheming. He would play the greatest shadow game of all time, and banish the pharaoh into the shadow realm for sure. Yugi would be gone, and the rest of his friends would likely be destroyed in the process. And the spirit of the millennium ring would finally have his revenge. He would have the one thing he always wanted.

By the time Ryou finished sighing, he knew the spirit would already be gone.

But regardless of this, Ryou found himself too restless to stay in the confines of his soul room. Sitting idly by was one thing. Watching that revenge take place, however, that was something he'd rather not do.

So Ryou walked out into the hall that separated the two soul rooms. Surprisingly, the door to his yami's soul room was still open. He thought he had heard it slam shut, but it must have been just the metal door striking the frame and bouncing back open.

Unable to really stop himself, he peeked inside.

He was surprised to see his yami still there, sitting in a dark corner.

"… Yami?"

He looked up slightly, but then let his gaze fall back to the musky stones.

"What the fuck do you want?"

Ryou wasn't sure how to answer that. A direct, 'Why aren't you running after the pharaoh and attempting to kill my friends?' didn't seem appropriate for the situation.

"Are… you all right?" he ventured a few more steps closer before stopping.

"I still hear them, you know. I still hear their voices, every fucking night. Screaming as they're burned alive, their skin and bones melted into fucking pieces of gold. The pharaoh, cursing my existence. I don't think I'll ever stop hearing it."

"Maybe… maybe you shouldn't."

"You're even dumber than I thought." he spit in Ryou's direction. "Even if I do get all seven items, even if I do avenge my family, what's the point of it all? The screams. Their agonizing screams. You're right. They'll never go away. Never!"

Ryou just stood there.

He could hardly believe it. His yami felt just as trapped as he did.

"You… you could fit through that window… Yami, if… if you could get up there… and… and maybe move one stone…" Ryou whispered.

Yami Bakura sighed. He didn't know what his pathetic host was trying to say. There was only one way out of the soul room, and that was through the door into Ryou's mind. There was no window. What a stupid thing to say.

Then suddenly, something dawned on him.

Ryou wasn't talking about the soul room. He was talking about something different entirely.

"That… was you, in the dungeon. That day. Wasn't it…" He looked up.

Ryou nodded weakly. It was.

"… And it was you in the ice cream parlor… wasn't it…" Ryou whispered weakly.

His yami couldn't help but nod. It was.

And it became clear. They weren't just investigating each other's memories. They were really there. Over the course of time, they had influenced each other's lives in countless ways. They had even managed to save each other from certain death. They just didn't know it until now.

Not until some things, as it were, simply became unforgotten…

And that was why neither light half, nor dark half, was ever truly alone. Wherever one went, the other somehow followed.

Yami Bakura thought about it for a while. Eventually, he let a weak smile escape his lips.

"Just, always appreciate them." He whispered, thinking about everything that had just happened. The advice he gave to Ryou in his childhood suddenly made sense in a whole new way.

Ryou bent down, staring into his yami's deep brown eyes. All this time they had been fighting each other, when they were truly more alike than either of them realized. And despite the quests for revenge, the bouts of Monster World turned shadow game, and everything in between, they still needed each other. They were two halves of one whole.

"… Maybe… we should…appreciate them." he whispered, smiling weakly. Gently, he put his hand over his yami's and squeezed. "Maybe… we should."

Yami Bakura sat there for a minute. He could feel his window of opportunity close. His chance for revenge had ended, for now. But he didn't feel as bitter as he thought he would.

"Okay… fine." He replied weakly. Whether his host liked it or not, another chance would probably come. But for now, this prospect seemed… all right. "Maybe we should…"

Ryou just smiled.

"… okay…"


	23. Epilogue

By the time Yugi and the rest of his friends had made their way out of the memory world, Ryou Bakura was long gone. The only evidence that his yami had followed the other teens was a puddle of blood dribbling from one stone step to the next.

And that went quite unnoticed.

While Yugi and the others were contemplating the whereabouts of the last millennium item, the pharaoh's real name, and the thought of sending him to his final resting place, for once, Yami Bakura wasn't thinking about any of those things.

He had something else on his mind.

A feeling that, for the first time since he was a child in Kul Elna, he wasn't completely alone. And Ryou had that feeling too.

It wasn't a happy ending. Well, not yet anyway.

But it was a pretty good starting point, and one that they would never forget.


End file.
